Mississippi State extended its winning streak to seven straight matches to close out the regular season, defeating Ole Miss 5-2 and Alabama 4-3 on the road to finish in second place in the Southeastern Conference standings.
On Friday evening in Oxford, the No. 11 Bulldogs lost the first doubles match but rallied to take the opening point after the No. 2 pairing of freshman Niccolo Baroni and junior Mario Martinez Serrano was defeated. Senior Dusan Milanovic and junior Michal Novansky earned a 6-3 win at No. 3, and MSU’s top team of juniors Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, ranked second in the country, won 7-5.
The Rebels won the first completed singles match with sophomore Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes losing in straight sets at No. 6, but Sanchez Martinez gave the Bulldogs the lead back with a 6-4, 6-4 win at the No. 1 spot. Jovanovic won by the same score at No. 2, then Milanovic clinched the match at No. 5 by winning both his sets in a tiebreak. Martinez Serrano fell in three sets at No. 4, and Baroni pulled out a three-set win at No. 3 after falling behind early.
Two days later in Tuscaloosa, MSU (21-4, 11-3 SEC) lost the doubles point for the first time in conference play, although Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez stayed perfect against SEC foes with a 6-4 win. Jovanovic dominated his match at No. 2 singles, winning 6-1, 6-0, and freshman Bryan Hernandez Cortes earned an easy 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 6.
Ferrer Guimaraes, moving up to No. 5, suffered a 1-6, 3-6 loss, and Martinez Serrano also lost in straight sets at No. 3. But Sanchez Martinez kept the Bulldogs alive with a three-set win at No. 1, and Milanovic won the decisive match at No. 4 by winning a third-set tiebreak.
MSU is the No. 2 seed in this week’s SEC Tournament, hosted by South Carolina, and as the result of receiving a double bye, will not play until Friday evening against either Georgia, Oklahoma or LSU.
Women unable to secure conference win
The Bulldogs fell 4-0 at No. 4 Oklahoma on Friday and 4-1 at Arkansas on Sunday, finishing the regular season without an SEC victory.
Senior Alessia Tagliente and freshman Carolina Troiano forced their doubles match to a tiebreak at No. 2 against the Sooners, and sophomores Jayna Clemens and Chiara Di Genova were in the middle of a tiebreak at No. 3 when Oklahoma clinched the doubles point. MSU won no more than three total games in any of the three completed singles matches.
Against the Razorbacks, the Bulldogs did take the doubles point on a 6-3 win from Tagliente and Troiano and a 6-2 victory by Clemens and Di Genova. But singles play was not as kind to MSU. Freshman Gianna Oboniye fell 3-6, 2-6 at No. 1, sophomore Athina Pitta lost 5-7, 2-6 at No. 6 and Troiano lost both sets in tiebreaks at No. 2. Di Genova took the first set at No. 5 but dropped the next two as Arkansas clinched the victory.
The Bulldogs (10-15, 0-15 SEC) are the No. 16 seed in the SEC Tournament, hosted by Auburn, and will play No. 9 seed South Carolina in the first round Wednesday evening.
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