Chris Hooshyar was happy at Auburn, and never set a specific goal to become a head coach in the Southeastern Conference.
The native of Manchester, England had spent the last 10 years with the Tigers — the first five as an assistant coach for the women’s tennis team, the next five with the men — and both teams experienced postseason success with him on staff.
But Hooshyar had connections in Starkville with women’s soccer head coach and fellow Englishman James Armstrong as well as men’s tennis coach Matt Roberts. So when Daryl Greenan resigned last May after 14 seasons leading the Bulldogs’ women’s program, Hooshyar pursued the opening and landed his first head coaching gig.
“Every time I had come across people who either went to Mississippi State or lived in Starkville, they talked so highly about the values and the people,” Hooshyar said. “It’s what made it appealing for me to do something that I hadn’t done in 10 years, to actually leave and go check it out. And then when I came, I saw what everybody was talking about.”
Hooshyar quickly set to work filling out his coaching staff. In June, he brought on Taylor Russo, who played for him at Auburn and spent 2023 as an assistant at Wisconsin, helping the Badgers reach the NCAA Tournament and win 20 matches for the first time since 1997. Noah Tippen, a former assistant at James Madison, came on board a month later.
The new coaches have their work cut out for them following a season in which MSU finished 0-13 in SEC play and finished the year on a 14-match losing streak. Hooshyar knows the Bulldogs aren’t likely to reach the top of the conference in his first year, but he is focused on creating the program’s identity as a team built on toughness.
“It’s going to take time. It’s going to take resilience. I’m not delusional,” Hooshyar said. “You have to have the right steps and procedures and checkpoints in place and make sure we’re hitting those.”
Hooshyar inherits a young roster after MSU lost its top two singles players from last season to graduation. Senior Chloe Cirotte is back after finishing 10-4 in dual singles matches in 2023, and fifth-year Alexandra Mikhailuk brings plenty of experience and leadership from the No. 3 singles position.
Sophomore Dharani Niroshan and junior Maria Rizzolo had the Bulldogs’ best singles records during the fall, and the doubles team of Mikhailuk and freshman Athena Pitta won a title at the ITA Southern Regionals in Baton Rouge, La., in October.
“The biggest changes to my game were to be more brave and play with more courage,” Mikhailuk said. “We have the fundamentals, but the coaching staff has been really encouraging to help us play more aggressively (and) take what’s ours.”
MSU opens the season Saturday with home matches against Middle Tennessee and Jacksonville State and will take just two road trips in non-conference play, traveling to Memphis on Feb. 11 and Tulane and New Orleans on Feb. 23. The SEC opener is Mar. 2 at rival Ole Miss, followed by home matches the following weekend against Texas A&M and LSU.
With just eight players on the roster, most will have to play both singles and doubles, making conditioning all the more important. Hooshyar said his group is up for that challenge, particularly the returners who stuck with the Bulldogs through the coaching transition.
“A lot of these girls after last year could have jumped in the (transfer) portal, and they didn’t,” Hooshyar said. “They all stuck to Mississippi State because of how much they love this place, and I’m grateful and I’m glad they did that. That should have told me all I needed to know about their character. It’s easy to jump ship, and they didn’t. They gutted it out, they toughed it out, and they put in the work on the practice court and in the gym.”
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