Mississippi State kicked off a busy weekend of home matches with a 5-2 win over Louisiana on Friday before splitting a pair of contests on Sunday, falling short against Baylor, 4-1, but defeating Bellarmine by the same score.
The Bulldogs dominated the Ragin’ Cajuns in doubles, with the No. 3 pairing of Chloé Cirotte and Jayna Clemens winning 6-0 and the No. 2 duo of Dharani Niroshan and Alessia Taglente winning 6-2 to give MSU the opening point. Niroshan made quick work of her singles opponent in a 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 3, and Clemens put the Bulldogs on the brink of the overall win with a straight-sets victory in her singles match at No. 5.
Cirotte fell in straight sets at No. 2 singles, but Athina Pitta finished things off at No. 4 with an easy win in the first set and a tiebreak victory in the second.
“It felt really good,” Pitta said. “I’d been struggling the past two weeks in singles so it was good that I could play my game and get the win.”
Sunday’s first match against the Bears did not start as well for MSU, as Niroshan and Tagliente were shut out at No. 2 doubles and Cirotte and Clemens were also beaten decisively at No. 3. The Bulldogs’ only point came from Pitta at No. 4 singles, where the freshman from Greece lost the first set 6-1 but took the second set 6-2, then won in a tiebreaker in the third. Rizzolo and Niroshan dropped their singles matches in straight sets while Tagliente fell in three.
Later that day, though, MSU swept the Knights in singles after again dropping the doubles point. Niroshan, at No. 5, and Alexandra Mikhailuk at No. 2 each lost just three games in their respective singles victories, and Tagliente and Cirotte also won in straight sets to clinch the match.
MSU (8-2) heads south for a Friday doubleheader in the Crescent City, battling Tulane and then New Orleans in its final matches before Southeastern Conference play begins on Mar. 2 at Ole Miss.
“It showed our mentality and physicality,” Bulldogs head coach Chris Hooshyar said. “You can’t build anything without those two things being first. So we’re going to continue to build our mentality, continue to build physically and keep building from there.”
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