STARKVILLE — A Mississippi State University women’s tennis program playing its best at the end of the season couldn’t overcome the talent of the University of Tennessee.
The Bulldogs were defeated 4-0 in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre Thursday afternoon.
The Lady Bulldogs (9-14) put together a better effort against the Lady Volunteers than the 7-0 loss in Knoxville, Tenn., a month ago. MSU had commanding lead on two of the singles courts before Tennessee wrapped up the match just over two hours after it begin.
“The girls were getting better all season and buying into the program,” MSU coach Daryl Greenan said. “I never felt like anybody quit and we fought right down to the end of our season today.”
MSU earned the right to continue playing in the SEC tournament on its home court after a 4-2 victory over the University of Missouri Wednesday. The Lady Bulldogs rode the success of its top two singles players (Georgiana Patrasc and Alexandra Perper) late in the season and both those players won their doubles matches Wednesday against the Tigers. MSU advanced to the second round for the first time since 2005 and Tennessee wins its opening-round match for the fifth-straight season and makes its 15th-consecutive quarterfinal appearance.
“It was a little different story than playing Tennessee indoors where I really feel like we had an opportunity to get some wins and just fell short against a really good team,” Greenan said.
After losing the doubles point to Tennessee Thursday, MSU was unable to use any momentum from the top of their singles lineup as players 3-5 only won a combined six games to complete the season- ending loss.
MSU returns all of its lineup for the 2014 season as one of the youngest teams in the SEC managed to win back-to-back matches against Missouri to give them a pleasant outlook to the overall season.
As the match against the Lady Vols was called at 4-0, Perper had a 6-2, 4-2 advantage in her match against Tennessee’s No. 31-ranked Kata Szekely. MSU freshman Sarai Flores had a 6-3, 5-1 advantage over UT’s Jesse Grace. The Mexico City native battled back to won the final two sets of her match against Missouri’s Madison Rhyner.
“I think we put too much pressure early on in the season because the bottom half of our lineup wasn’t producing but if you look at the results by the end of the year that simply wasn’t the case,” Greenan said. “I’m very encouraged about picking up with this group next season. We’re not done with this group, not by a long shot.”
With the victory over MSU, Tennessee advanced to play eighth-ranked Alabama today in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament. The winner of the event, that has seven teams ranked in the latest Top 25 poll, gets an automatic berth into NCAA Regionals.
“The key is to just survive and find a way to move on to another day of treatment and matches,” Tennessee co-head coach Mike Patrick said. “I think MSU really did feed off playing at its home court and it was a much tougher match than the final score would certainly indicate.”
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