STARKVILLE — The celebration isn’t over yet. Mississippi State men’s tennis players are still wearing their Southeastern Conference Tournament Champions t-shirts and hats, several days after MSU beat Texas A&M to win the tournament Sunday; some of them have worn the combination every day since then. Even mere minutes before their NCAA tournament fate was announced, some of them were debating names for the trophy they just won.
“It’s such a big high, it’ll take a few days,” said junior Trevor Foshey, who won a third-set tiebreaker to clinch the championship.
Coach Matt Roberts is still feeling it: “It’s been hard for me to sleep.”
The time for celebration will eventually end. Tuesday’s announcement was the first step.
The NCAA revealed the bracket for its men’s tennis team championships, granting MSU the No. 6 seed nationally and the right to host the first two rounds of the tournament. MSU will play Tennessee Tech May 11 no earlier than 1 p.m. after the conclusion of the Memphis-South Alabama match; if MSU beats Tennessee Tech, it will play the winner of the Memphis-South Alabama match May 12 at 1 p.m in the second round.
The 10 days in between then and now gives MSU the time to finish its final exams, prepare for the tournament ahead and continue to revel in its recent accomplishment, the program’s first since 1996.
The way MSU did it — with its No. 6 player coming-from-behind in a final set tiebreak to win his match, the match as a whole and the tournament all at once — is the best confidence builder the team could imagine.
Foshey said Roberts’ philosophy on tiebreaks revolves around being the first player to four points and taking on that challenge before getting to the seven required to win one; Foshey lost that race, then double faulted to grant Texas A&M’s A.J. Catanzariti a 5-3 lead. That lead turned to 6-4, where Foshey admits he had to fight thoughts of giving away the SEC championship his team so coveted.
The four consecutive points he won to make it happen guaranteed MSU’s status as a host team, a status Roberts has been working for since he took over the job after the 2014 season.
“When I took the program over from Per Nilsson, that was one of my goals,” Roberts said. “I think there’s a lot of progress with Mississippi State athletics and I’m glad men’s tennis is at the forefront for people to see momentum to grab onto.”
Those that gravitate to the team in time for the tournament can expect two days of competitive tennis in Starkville.
“Memphis is a great team. We played them three years ago at Illinois: our team is pretty much the same, their team is pretty much the same,” Roberts said. “They have a lot of seniors, we have a lot of juniors now, pretty similar matchup.
“They almost got in the top 16 for a while.”
Roberts has kept up with the Memphis program since their meeting, including assistant coach and former MSU player Chris Doerr. Roberts added Tennessee Tech’s No. 1 player, Eduardo Mena, beat MSU’s No. 1 Nuno Borges at an event in the fall. Borges is currently ranked No. 2 in the Oracle/ITA rankings and Mena No. 63.
Roberts is perfectly OK with Borges getting a challenge in the first round — he welcomes it, hoping being pushed keeps him and the rest of the team sharp, “to keep that tournament mentality.” The real challenge is for the teams visiting Starkville.
“When we’re at home, we didn’t lose this year and we’re not going to start that in these next couple of weeks,” Foshey said.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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