AUBURN, Ala., – No. 15 Mississippi State opens the second round of the SEC Men’s Tennis Championships against 11th-seeded Alabama on Thursday at 9 a.m. at Auburn’s Yarbrough Tennis Center.
Matt Roberts‘ sixth-seeded Bulldogs finished the regular season 7-5 in conference play and enter the postseason at 19-6 overall. The winner between MSU and Alabama will move on to meet No. 3 seed Kentucky on Friday at 9 a.m.
“We had a great regular season and we’re going to keep pushing because we have a great team,” said junior Carles Hernandez, who is ranked 116th in the nation in singles. “We don’t want this season to end so we want to keep it alive as long as possible.”
One of MSU’s wins this spring came against the Crimson Tide. The Bulldogs rallied back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits during their match in Tuscaloosa on April 2 to claim a 4-3 victory. No. 80 Nemanja Malesevic, No. 103 Ewen Lumsden, Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez all claimed singles wins in the previous meeting against Alabama.
“Everybody is hungry in this tournament,” Hernandez said. “We’re going to have to be a little careful because they’re going to come hungry because we beat them during the regular season so we’ve got to be ready to play.”
Mississippi State holds a 38-25 lead in the series over the Crimson Tide and have won 13 of the last 14. The Bulldogs are 2-1 against Alabama in the SEC Championships. State downed the Tide 4-1 in the second round of the 2021 SEC Championships in Fayetteville and also earned a 4-0 shutout in the first round of the 2000 tournament at home.
Alabama’s only win over MSU in the SEC Championships came in the opening round in Oxford, Mississippi, 4-1.
In addition to half of the Bulldogs’ singles lineup being ranked, State also has a pair of ranked doubles duos. Hernandez and Malesevic come in as the No. 57 team in the country while Malesevic and Michal Novansky are 73rd and posted a 6-2 win over the then No. 5 tandem of Trent Bryde and Ethan Quinn of Georgia their last time out.
No. 46 Alabama enters Thursday’s affair with an 11-14 overall record but closed the regular season with back-to-back wins over then No. 17 Auburn (4-3) and at Arkansas (6-1) to finish 3-9 in league play. Those victories snapped a seven-match losing skid for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama’s singles lineup features No. 92…
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