Mississippi State has never failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament with head coach Matt Roberts in charge. But as he enters his 10th season leading the Bulldogs, Roberts wants more, and he is not shy about his lofty goals.
After MSU secured the No. 15 national seed in 2023 and won its regional in Starkville by defeating Alabama State and Middle Tennessee, the Bulldogs fell at No. 2 TCU in the round of 16, leaving a bitter taste in Roberts’ mouth that still has not completely faded.
“You want to be in those top eight seeds, so if you get through the first two rounds you can host a super regional,” Roberts said. “That’s our goal this year, to be here for three matches. We have to take care of the matches we need to take care of (and) pick off some teams ranked higher than us.”
MSU’s top three singles players from a season ago are all back. Nemanja Malesevic occupied the No. 1 spot, finishing 12-11, and Petar Jovanovic was 13-7 at No. 2 singles and 19-8 overall. Carles Hernandez, at No. 3, was nearly automatic, finishing 19-3 at that spot with an 8-3 mark against Southeastern Conference opponents. The Bulldogs also return Benito Sanchez Martinez, who was 15-6 last year at No. 5 singles and 20-7 overall.
As a team, MSU had a singles record of 112-54, but their doubles pairings were not quite as strong, finishing 37-35. Roberts emphasized winning the doubles point as one of the keys to remaining competitive in the SEC, which sent 10 teams to the 2023 NCAA Tournament and five to the super regionals.
“Doubles points are huge. Our goal is to win more doubles points this year,” Roberts said. “We got hot late last year and won quite a few doubles points late, where all three courts were really playing at a high level. This year, we have three really good doubles teams in place. We’d like to win around 80 percent of doubles points this year. That really helps us get off to a good start (because) then you only need three out of six singles.”
With just two seniors and one junior, MSU has a young roster that has become typical under Roberts, and that lone junior, Dusan Milanovic, is a transfer from Presbyterian. Malesevic, Milanovic and freshman Radomir Tomic all hail from Bosnia and Herzegovina, meaning Bosnians make up one-third of the Bulldogs’ roster — a higher proportion than Americans do.
Malesevic and Hernandez were the Bulldogs’ most common No. 1 doubles team last year, but Roberts said he plans to have Sanchez and Jovanovic play there this season. In early November, Malesevic teamed with freshman Marshall Landry to win the doubles title at the Georgia Tech Fall Invite in Atlanta.
“We have a lot of players from different parts of the world, and sometimes it can be tough with the travel,” Malesevic said. “We have some guys who came back (from winter break) with some sort of cold or flu. But everyone is fully ready to start practicing.”
MSU’s season begins with a pair of home matches Sunday against Northern Illinois and Chattanooga, and then comes a big opportunity for a signature non-conference win against Florida State on Jan. 19. The Bulldogs’ non-conference road trips will send them to Middle Tennessee, Memphis and Tulane, and SEC play opens in Starkville on Mar. 3 against Georgia.
“I scheduled some road matches early for us to get comfortable playing in any environment,” Roberts said. “We’re going to need that in the SEC season. We had some injuries in the fall, so a couple guys were not able to compete as much as they wanted to, but right now everybody’s looking good and healthy, so we’re excited to start playing some matches.”
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