STARKVILLE – Mississippi State’s women’s tennis team flexed their muscles during the first day of the John Cade Invitational on Friday.
In their first home action of the fall, the Bulldogs posted a 9-4 overall record against opponents from Louisiana Tech, Louisville and Memphis.
MSU found much of its success on the singles side, winning five of six matches against the Cardinals. No. 52 Emmanouela Antonaki, Gia Cohen and Emily Surcey all earned straight-set victories while Alexandra Mikhailuk and Dharani Niroshan prevailed in three sets.
“We played a bunch of solid matches today,” said head coach Daryl Greenan. “We started a little slow but settled down and finished well in the first doubles. We tried some different combinations and competed well in the second round of doubles. Singles was very solid for us. I was happy with the way we competed top to bottom.”
Antonaki secured a 6-3, 6-4 win over Rhea Verma, Cohen soundly defeated Jamilah Snells 6-3, 6-0 and Surcey claimed a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Joy Callaway.
Mikhailuk lost her first set 6-1 to Cici Xin but battled back in a big way, outscoring Xin 12-4 in the next two sets. The senior from Canada won the second set 6-4 and shutout Xin in the third, 6-0.
Niroshan topped Tyra Richardson 6-2 in the opening set but dropped a second-set tiebreaker 7-6(5). However, the true freshman fought back to take a tiebreaker 7-6(3) in the third set to secure the win.
Maddie Bemisderfer suffered the only singles loss for the Bulldogs. Bemisderfer dominated the first set 6-1 but was edged 6-4, 6-4 in the next two sets by Sasha Gorchanyuk.
Bermisdefer did find success in doubles alongside partner Maddie McKee. “The Maddies” downed the Memphis tandem of Miriam Grosmann and Micah Pierce 8-2.
Mikhailuk and Maria Rizzolo teamed up to take down Gorchanyuk and Richardson 8-4 while Antonaki and Cohen slipped past Snells and Xin 8-7(6). Niroshan and Surcey sustained State’s lone loss of the first doubles session, dropping a tight 8-6 decision to Arielle Nealy and Verma and Arielle Nealy of Louisville.
The second doubles session against Louisiana Tech saw Mikhailuk and Niroshan defeat the duo of Olga Bienzobas and Ana Rodrigues 8-5.
Antonaki and Sydney Hrehor lost an 8-5 decision to Leonie Schuknecht and Ilana Tetruashvili while Cohen and Surcey fell by the same score to Alexia Romero and…
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