No. 20 MSU Opens 2015 SEC Championship Against No. 17 Florida
STARKVILLE, Miss. – With two days of practice in the books in College Station, the 20th-ranked and No. 3 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs (18-6) are set to take on the 17th-ranked and No. 6 seed Florida Gators (14-7) in the quarterfinals of the 2015 SEC Championship on Friday.
Due to the threat of inclement weather entering the College Station area late Friday afternoon, the matchup between the Bulldogs and Gators has been pushed up from noon to 9 a.m. CT. Live stats can be found at www.HailState.com.
Friday’s winner will advance to the SEC Championship semifinals to face the winner of 25th-ranked and No. 7 seed LSU Tigers and sixth-ranked and No. 2 seed Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday at noon.
“We’re excited to get back to playing and begin our push into postseason play,” MSU coach Matt Roberts said. “Florida is a tough team, but we’ve been focused and on it in practice this week, and are ready to take on this challenge.”
State will be looking to avenge a loss at Florida earlier this season. The Bulldogs are also looking to earn their first win in the SEC Championship since hosting the event in 2012, when MSU was the No. 3 seed and defeated Tennessee, 4-2. All time against Florida in the tournament, State is 2-4 and is looking for its first win against the Gators in the conference championship since a 4-2 win in the quarterfinals in 1996, the lone season in which MSU won the tournament.
Leading the way for MSU in singles has been the pair of Rishab Agarwal and Mate Cutura. Agarwal has a team-best 17 dual match wins and 23 overall wins, while currently riding a 10-match winning streak. The sophomore was one of three players to finish the year with a perfect 8-0 showing in SEC play.
Ranked 118th nationally is Cutura, a two-time SEC Player of the Week this season. He is 12-5 this spring, finishing the season with an 8-2 conference record.
No. 76 Florian Lakat remains at the top of the MSU lineup with a 13-6 record this spring, all coming at the No. 1 position. Five of the sophomore’s wins have come against ranked opponents, including a season-high win against No. 31 Austin Smith in State’s 4-2 upset of sixth-ranked Georgia earlier this season.
Juan Cruz Estevarena is 10-4 this spring after earning his 10th dual match win last weekend. Fellow freshman Julian Cash is 8-5 in dual matches and has 12 wins for the 2014-15 year after clinching MSU’s regular season finale against No. 24 LSU.
MSU continues to dominate in doubles play this year, having captured the match’s opening point 19 times this spring. State is 15-4 in 2015 when capturing doubles play.
Highlighting State’s doubles dominance is the seventh-ranked duo of Cash and Lakat, who have earned several big wins in recent weeks. After knocking off the nation’s No. 1 duo of Smith and Ben Wagland from UGA, the Bulldog tandem defeated LSU’s No. 23 team of Boris Arias and Jordan Daigle to close out the regular season.
Cutura and Schmid are back on a hot streak as they enter the SEC Championship, having won their last four matches and going 14-3 this spring and 17-4 for the 2014-15 season. Rounding out the doubles order is the team of Estevarena and Robin Haden, who are 7-4 this spring after winning six of their last seven matches.
The Gators defeated No. 74 Kentucky 4-2 on Thursday to advance to Friday’s matchup with the Bulldogs. Leading Florida is No. 53 Diego Hidalgo and No. 116 Elliott Orkin, who will play at the top two spots for UF. The Gators’ other ranked singles player is Maxx Lipman at No. 120, who is at the five spot. Freshman Chase Perez-Blanco leads UF with 25 wins this season.
In doubles, the 51st-ranked tandem of Lipman and Orkin are coming off their second-straight ranked win on Thursday while playing at UF’s top spot. The No. 50 duo of Hidalgo and Gordon Watson, who will be at the No. 2 position, clinched the doubles point for the Gators against Kentucky.
For more information on Mississippi State men’s tennis and updates throughout the 2015 SEC Championship, fans can follow the Bulldogs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at HailStateMT.