STARKVILLE — The opponents were the same, and so were the results.
A year after Mississippi State defeated Alabama State and Middle Tennessee on home courts to reach the NCAA super regionals, the Bulldogs followed the same path and did it again this weekend. No. 16 seed MSU shut out the Hornets 4-0 in the first round Friday, then did the same to the Blue Raiders on Saturday. The wins put the Bulldogs (19-7) back in the round of 16 for the fifth time in the last six seasons.
“I was happy with how our guys were super focused,” head coach Matt Roberts said. “Great body language and had a good sense of urgency on all courts. We knew Middle Tennessee is a good team; they beat us early in the year. We had to come out here really focused, playing our game, stressing ourselves, and the guys did really well on every court.”
Thunderstorms forced Friday’s match against Alabama State (14-4) to be moved indoors to the Rula Tennis Pavilion, and MSU took the doubles point with ease. The 11th-ranked doubles team in the country, sophomores Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, claimed a 6-1 victory at the No. 1 spot, and senior Nemanja Malesevic and sophomore Michal Novansky won 6-2 at No. 3.
Jovanovic routed Samrakshyak Bajracharya 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2 singles, then freshman Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 victory at No. 6. Junior Dusan Milanovic, a transfer from Presbyterian, clinched the match for the Bulldogs at No. 5 with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph.
“I stayed resilient,” Milanovic said. “Had a few break points, didn’t convert them, stayed there the whole match and got the job done in the last few games.”
MSU had defeated Middle Tennessee in the second round last spring, but the Blue Raiders (21-10) edged the Bulldogs 4-3 in Murfreesboro on Feb. 2. This time, MSU was better prepared for Middle Tennessee’s pace and did not drop a single set.
“We prefer playing in hot outdoor conditions, so we knew that would help us in a lot of scenarios,” Roberts said. “They’re a really good indoor team. They beat us on a fast indoor court, so our goal was to try and get the ball up on a lot of them, out of their strike zone, and get to the net.”
Senior Carles Hernandez and Milanovic won the first completed doubles match 6-3 at No. 2, with Malesevic and Novansky clinching the opening point in a 7-5 victory at No. 3. The Bulldogs have now won the doubles point in their last eight matches.
Ferrer Guimaraes continued to shine in his first NCAA Tournament, winning the first completed singles match 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6, and the two seniors, Malesevic and Hernandez, took it from there in their final match at the AJ Pitts Tennis Centre. Malesevic defeated Leo Raquin 6-4, 6-3, and Hernandez wrapped things up moments later at No. 3 singles with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Ondrej Horak.
“It feels good. It feels special,” Hernandez said. “My goal was to come out and enjoy the match as much as possible. I had my parents here. I wanted to do it for them, I wanted to do it for the crowd, for my teammates.”
MSU now has the ultimate test ahead — a trip to Columbus, Ohio to face No. 1 seed Ohio State on Saturday with a trip to the NCAA Championships in Stillwater, Okla. on the line.
“These boys are holding each other accountable, so we’ll get a lot of that out, what they like in each other, what they think they can do better,” Roberts said. “They challenge each other in our team meeting, and we’ll learn from some moments. But there were a lot of good things we can keep taking and move forward in the next round.”
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