#21 MSU Men's Tennis Set To Open NCAA Tourney Vs. Florida State
The winner between MSU (13-8) and FSU (9-14) will advance to play the winner between 15th-ranked host Georgia Tech (who is the country's No. 15 seed overall) and Middle Tennessee on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET in the second round. The Saturday contest would be for a spot in the NCAA Team Championship's round of 16, which will be held May 19-22 in Palo, Alto, Calif.
State, which has posted its best record in 13 years this season and won the SEC Western Division crown, boasts four players currently ranked in the top 100 nationally - George Coupland (60th), Artem Ilyushin (61st), Louis Cant (86th) and Malte Stropp (92nd). In doubles, Cant and Stropp are 37th.
FSU has two players ranked - Vahid Mirzadeh (25th) and Clint Bowles (105th). Mirzadeh joins teammate Connor Smith to form the country's 13th-ranked doubles team as well.
"We've been practicing very hard to prepare for the NCAAs and we are ready to start," MSU head coach Per Nilsson said. "Florida State is a very talented and dangerous team - certainly underrated in my opinion. They have a lot of recent experience in the tournament and they've lost some very close matches to top 10 teams. We will have to be at our best to get past them."
The Bulldogs and Seminoles have met in men's tennis 13 times, with State holding an 8-5 series lead (since 1969). The teams have not met since the 1997 season, when MSU took a 7-0 decision in Starkville and the Bulldogs have won five-straight in the series.
The teams have never met in the NCAA Tournament, where Florida State will be making its ninth straight appearance. MSU is back in the NCAA field for the first time since 2005. State's 15-year streak (1991-2005) of appearances in the NCAAs ended that season.
MSU's at-large selection to the 2011 NCAA field marks the Bulldogs' 20th appearance in the NCAA Championship all-time, the 16th since the dual match team format began in 1977. The Bulldogs are 15-15 in the tournament all-time, 11-4 in the first round. State has reached the round of 16 10 times, the quarterfinals five times, and the national semifinals twice.
MSU IN THE 2011 NCAA MEN'S TENNIS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
First
and Second Rounds
May
13-14, 2011 - Atlanta, Ga.
Friday, May 13
#21 Mississippi State (13-8) vs. #47 Florida State (9-14) - 10 a.m. ET
#15 Georgia Tech (19-5) vs. Middle Tennessee (13-12) - 1 p.m. ET
Saturday, May 14
Second Round Match (to advance to round of 16 at Palo Alto, CA) - 3 p.m. ET
(numbers preceding team names indicate current ITA national rankings)