TALLAHASSEE – The No. 15 Florida State men’s tennis team fell to No. 24 Mississippi State 4-3 on Sunday afternoon at the Scott Speicher Memorial Tennis Center.
Mississippi State jumped out to an early lead after winning the doubles point and getting victories on Courts No. 2 and No. 3, requiring Florida State to obtain victories on all four remaining courts to win the match.
“We did a good job battling back in doubles and getting an opportunity to win, but when we didn’t get the doubles point, Mississippi State did a good job getting up on three of the courts” head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “We got up on three of the courts, but ended up playing from behind all day. Certainly, the match could’ve been very different, we had match point on Court 6, and if we get that it’s three all playing for the match.”
No. 71-ranked Jamie Connel earned the Noles first point of the afternoon after his 6-2, 7-5 win in straight sets on Court No. 5. Connel won three straight games after being down 5-4 in the second set.
Youcef Rihane, ranked 38th in the nation, defeated Ewen Lumsden 6-4, 7-6 (6) in straight sets. Rihane’s victory on Court No. 4 was his seventh win of the season.
No. 3-ranked Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc remains undefeated on the season at Court No. 1 after his 6-1, 6-7 (5), 1-0 (7) victory over Nemanja Malesevic earned Florida State its third point in the match. Cornut-Chauvinc is now 8-0, with five of those wins coming against ranked opponents.
After Mississippi State won the first doubles match 6-3 on Court No. 2, Florida State struck back after Alex Bulte and Loris Pourroy came back from a 3-2 deficit, securing a 6-4 win on Court 3. The doubles point came down to Court 1, but Cornut-Chauvinc and Rihane’s rally fell short as Mississippi State clinched the doubles point with a 7-5 win.
“Mississippi State is one of the better teams in the SEC” Hultquist said. “They’re a very strong team but we put ourselves behind. We were down match points in the doubles, and we staved off five match points to win that and battled back. We got a good effort from third doubles, and we just need to be a little more consistent in our doubles play. We had several guys have good matches today, we just needed to get the fourth point.”
Florida State is now 6-3 on the season. The Seminoles are back in action on February 25th when they travel to Orlando to play UCF.
#24 Mississippi State 4, #15 Florida…