Mississippi State head coach Matt Roberts didn’t need a selection show to tell him who his team would open the 2019 NCAA tournament with.
Senior Nuno Borges — the No. 2 singles player in the country — felt the same.
“I think we already expected it a little bit,” Borges admitted.
After taking home the SEC Championships title April 21 over Tennessee, the Bulldogs were officially notified of their postseason fate Monday afternoon.
MSU is the No. 7 overall seed and will host Alabama State Friday at the AJ Pitts Tennis Centre in Starkville to open its tournament run.
Joining them in the regional are Tulane and South Alabama.
“My guys knew, but you’ve just got to go one round at a time,” Roberts said. “One day at a time during preparation. One round at a time when you get into the tournament and just continue to play as a team, push each other, be accountable with each other’s actions and we say, ‘Stay focused on the route, not the fruit.'”
The Bulldogs also hosted first-round matches last season. Roberts recalled one moment in which the team jogged around the courts while the MSU faithful regaled his squad with a standing ovation.
“It just made the guys feel very special,” he said. “Just the building of that throughout the year and then to have the fans do that just meant a lot to them.”
MSU will enter the tournament at 22-3 in dual match play and 10-0 at home. This will mark the ninth straight season the Bulldogs will appear in the NCAA tournament and it is the program’s 28th appearance overall.
If MSU advances to the Super Regional, it would host TCU, Arizona State, Miami or Harvard.
“We’re ready,” Borges said. “We had a long semester and I think we’re going to peak in this tournament, that’s what we’ve been working for.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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