26th-Ranked Lady Bulldogs Face Pepperdine In NCAA First Round
MSU's appearance in this year's NCAA Team Championships marks the first time the Lady Bulldogs have participated in the annual event since the 2001 campaign and only the fourth time in school history. In that 2001 season, the Lady Bulldogs finished with a 9-13 record, 3-8 within the SEC and advanced in the NCAA second round.
This year's bid also marks the fourth time head coach Tracy Lane has guided the Lady Bulldogs into the NCAAs during her nine-year stint at MSU. State made three consecutive trips to the NCAAs under Lane from 1999-2001, but had not made a return appearance until this season's bid to Atlanta.
MSU is facing a fairly unfamiliar foe when they take the court Friday morning to face Pepperdine. The Waves own a slim 1-0 advantage over the Lady Bulldogs, winning 6-0 in the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Ariz., in the third match of the 1989 season. State finished that season 12-7, 5-4 in the league. This season, Pepperdine won the WCC Tournament for the 14th time in the last 15 seasons.
The Lady Bulldogs' top two players this year have been Zsuzsanna Fodor and Anastasia Kugakolova. The 19th-ranked Fodor went 15-4 in dual matches and broke the school's all-time record for singles victories in a season with 35 en route to earning First Team all-SEC accolades in singles. Kugakolova, the 120th-ranked singles player, went 11-6 in dual matches, upsetting the nation's 23rd-ranked singles player along the way. Pepperdine has two players ranked in the top 75 nationally. Bianca Dulgheru is ranked 29th nationally while Caroline Raba is 74th.
"It's going to be a very tough first round match," Lane said. "Pepperdine is a very solid team top to bottom and we've got to take care of business on Friday. They are going to be competing against us like one of the tougher teams in our conference. We know what we are up against and we are going to have to come out and play some really solid tennis."
During the 2004 fall season, State's 19th-ranked combo of Zsuzsanna Fodor and Anastasia Kugakolova squared off with Pepperdine's duo of Eva Dickes and Bianca Dulgheru in prequalifying of the Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships. In that match, the Waves' Dickes and Dulgheru handed State tandem its first loss of the fall season, downing Fodor and Kugakolova 9-8 (8).
Should State claim victory in its match with Pepperdine, MSU would then meet either host Georgia Tech (19-3) or Winthrop (21-3) on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET and the right to advance to the NCAA round of 16 in Athens, Ga.