After a layoff of nearly two weeks, Mississippi State showed no signs of rust playing four matches in three days. The Bulldogs remained undefeated by beating Tulane and Alabama A&M on Friday and UAB and Arkansas State on Sunday.

“What impressed me today was the team’s energy and the team’s togetherness,” head coach Chris Hooshyar said after Friday’s doubleheader sweep. “Last year when we were playing, you could hear a pin drop too much. We’re trying to teach the girls how to be more energetic and how to understand momentum.”

MSU (6-0) earned revenge on the Green Wave, who had shut out the Bulldogs last season, with a 6-1 victory that took three and a half hours to complete. The No. 2 doubles team of senior Maria Rizzolo and freshman Carolina Troiano got things started with a 6-2 win, and the No. 1 duo of freshman Gianna Oboniye and sophomore Athina Pitta clinched the doubles point by winning 6-3.

Troiano and senior Alessia Tagliente each earned straight-sets wins in singles before Rizzolo won the clinching point with a three-set victory. Oboniye and sophomore Jayna Clemens both rallied back from a set down to win their singles matches. Tulane’s only point game against freshman Chiara Di Genova, who pushed her match to a third set after dropping the first but could not close it out.

“Leading up to this week, we knew we wanted revenge on Tulane,” Rizzolo said. “We put in the extra work and practice for the week that we wanted to show today, which I feel like it did.”

MSU had an easier time later that day against Alabama A&M, winning every set in a 7-0 victory. Rizzolo and Clemens lost just one game apiece in singles, while Troiano and Di Genova lost just three each.

Two days later, the Bulldogs grabbed 4-1 victories over both the Blazers and Red Wolves. Oboniye, playing at No. 1 singles, earned the clinching victory against UAB after she bounced back from losing the opening set. She won in straight sets against Arkansas State, as did Troiano and Pitta.

MSU is back in action for two more home matches this coming Friday against Memphis and Alcorn State.

“It’s the fact that we’re all together, always supporting each other and all the fans supporting us, it just brings me up a lot,” Troiano said. “It pushes me to never give up, always stay in the point and be more resilient.”

Bulldog men bounce back from disappointing ITA Kickoff Weekend

Coming off its first loss of the season, No. 14 MSU played outdoors for the first time all year Sunday and earned a pair of shutouts against Tulane and Tennessee Tech. The Bulldogs were without their top player, junior Petar Jovanovic, who was in China competing for his home country of Montenegro in the Davis Cup.

Ranked No. 20 nationally in doubles, freshman Niccolo Baroni and junior Mario Martinez Serrano played at the top spot and won both of their matches. Junior Benito Sanchez Martinez, normally part of the Bulldogs’ top doubles team with Jovanovic, played at No. 3 with sophomore Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes and also won twice Sunday.

In singles, Sanchez Martinez defeated a Green Wave player ranked two spots above him, and Martinez Serrano and Ferrer Guimaraes also won comfortably. Only Michal Novansky, at No. 6, needed a third set, which he won in a super-tiebreak to complete a 7-0 MSU victory.

Later that day, the Bulldogs won every set against Tennessee Tech, with Baroni, Ferrer Guimaraes and Novansky all winning their singles matches 6-0, 6-0. MSU (8-1) hosts Memphis and Jackson State this coming Sunday.

“We really stepped up as a team,” head coach Matt Roberts said. “Some guys got some good matches in and used it as an opportunity to play when (Jovanovic) is not here. Everybody did great today and we applied what we worked on in practice this week.”