MSU Women Face No. 7 Tennessee And No. 6 Georgia At The A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre This Weekend
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The Mississippi State University women's tennis team (6-9, 0-6) will host the Lady Vols (15-4, 5-1) of Tennessee Friday, March 28, at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre at 2:30 p.m. Tennessee leads the series with State 21-3. Last season, the Lady Vols topped the Lady Bulldogs 7-0 in Knoxville, Tenn., at the Varsity Courts.
Anastasia Kugakolova (7-7) and Justyna Switala (10-10) are tied for the team's highest singles winning percentage at .500. Switala leads the team in singles dual action with a 7-5 record and a .583 winning percentage. MSU's duo of Switala and Yumi Ueda are 4-2 overall in doubles, a squad best.
Tennessee's Vilmarie Castellvi was named SEC player of the week this week. Castellvi finished with a 3-0 record in singles and a 2-1 mark in doubles action last week in leading the 10th-ranked Lady Vols to victories over No. 49 BYU and No. 8 North Carolina and a near win over No. 4 Duke.
On Sunday, State will host Georgia (11-1, 6-0) also at the Pitts Tennis Centre in a match set to begin at 1 p.m. Mississippi State has never beaten the Georgia Bulldogs in 23 meetings. In their last meeting, Georgia swept State, 7-0, in Athens, Ga., at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
Georgia stands in first place in the overall SEC race at 6-0 with fifth-ranked Florida and seventh-ranked Tennessee tied for second at 5-1. Georgia concludes the regular season next month with those two opponents.
MSU fell 5-2 to #39 Auburn in its last match Sunday, March 16, in Starkville.
All MSU home tennis matches can be followed live on the web by visiting State's official athletic website at www.mstateathletics.com.