Following a full week off, No. 20 Mississippi State bounced back from a loss at Georgia with a key 4-3 win at home Sunday over No. 18 South Carolina.

The Bulldogs have won the doubles point in every Southeastern Conference match this year, and that continued against the Gamecocks. Juniors Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez, ranked fourth nationally, won their match 6-1 at No. 1 doubles over the 15th-ranked pairing from South Carolina. Freshman Niccolo Baroni and junior Mario Martinez Serrano clinched the doubles point at No. 2 with a 6-4 win.

In singles, sophomore Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes extended MSU’s lead with a 6-3, 6-2 victory at No. 6, then Jovanovic won 6-2, 7-5 at No. 2. The Gamecocks won the next two completed matches against senior Dusan Milanovic at No. 5 and Baroni at No. 3, but Sanchez Martinez wrapped things up for the Bulldogs at the No. 1 position in three sets.

MSU (15-4, 5-3 SEC) is back in action Thursday at home against Arkansas.

 

Bulldog women still winless in SEC play

MSU lost 4-0 at Kentucky on Friday, then was shut out again Sunday at No. 6 Tennessee.

Against the Wildcats, the Bulldogs’ No. 3 doubles team of sophomores Jayna Clemens and Chiara Di Genova won in the first completed match 6-4, but the No. 1 duo of freshman Gianna Oboniye and sophomore Athina Pitta lost 7-5, and the No. 2 team of freshman Emma Cohen and senior Alessia Tagliente fell in a tiebreak.

MSU did not win a set in any of the completed singles matches, though Clemens and freshman Carolina Troiano had both taken a set when their matches were abandoned with Kentucky clinching the victory.

Things were not as close against the Volunteers, who took every set. Troiano, starting at No. 1 singles, held her own against the nation’s seventh-ranked individual, Elza Tomase, but lost 3-6, 5-7.

The Bulldogs (10-9, 0-9 SEC) come back home to face No. 21 South Carolina on Friday and No. 1 Georgia on Sunday.