KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The No. 18 Mississippi State men’s tennis team will take on No. 49 Vanderbilt at 5 p.m. today in the Southeastern Conference tournament at Barksdale Stadium.
UTsports.com will provide live stats and video.
MSU (17-7, 8-4 SEC) enters the event as the No. 5 seed. Twelfth-seeded Vanderbilt (12-14, 3-10) defeated 13th-seeded Alabama 4-2 on Wednesday.
“Our guys are excited to get back out on the courts,” MSU coach Matt Roberts said. “We’ve had a great week of training and we feel good. Vanderbilt has a good team that fights with a lot of heart, so we will have to bring our best game.”
A big part of MSU’s success this season has been the play of No. 3 Nuno Borges. The sophomore has compiled a 29-5 singles record. He leads the conference with a 17-2 mark at the No. 1 spot.
Borges also has 19 victories against ranked foes, including a 4-2 mark against top-10 foes.
The Bulldogs have been strong all season long in singles action, but strong doubles play has been a bright spot of late. The Bulldogs have won the last five doubles points, and 14 overall. The ninth-ranked Bulldog pair of Niclas Braun and Trevor Foshey have led the charge with a 17-9 record. They have clinched five doubles points. The senior duo of Mate Cutura and Vaughn Hunter lead MSU in the clinch category with seven.
In March, MSU beat Vanderbilt 5-2.
If MSU should win, it will face No. 19 South Carolina at 5 p.m. Friday quarterfinals.
Against Alabama, Vanderbilt won the doubles point. Alabama’s team of Mazen Osama and Spencer Richey defeated Pen Binet and Baker Newman 6-3 on the top court. Vanderbilt’s Tate Allwardt and Billy Rowe defeated freshmen Thibault Cancel and Alexey Nesterov 6-3 on court two. The Commodores’ Daniel Valent and Panu Virtanen overcame freshmen Edson Ortiz and Zhe Zhou 6-4 on court three.
Vanderbilt made it 2-0 as Newman, who is ranked No. 107, defeated Cancel, who is ranked No. 119, 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2.
Alabama’s Richey (No. 6) beat Binet, 2-6, 6-3, 6-1. At No. 5, Zhou defeated Allwardt 7-6, 6-3.
Valent, who is ranked No. 54, outlasted Osama, who is ranked No. 27, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4 at No. 1 to give the Commodores a 3-2 lead. Rowe overcame Nesterov 6-7(1), 6-4, 6-1 at No. 3 to clinch the match.
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