Men’s tennis opens SEC Championship against LSU
Published 3:16 pm Wednesday, April 20, 2022
ATHENS, Ga., – Mississippi State men’s tennis begins its quest for a fourth SEC Tournament championship taking on No. 9 seed LSU in the second round on Thursday at 2 p.m. CT.
The eighth-seeded Bulldogs and head coach Matt Roberts are seeking their first conference tournament title since winning in back-to-back years in 2018 and 2019. MSU reached the quarterfinals last year and will meet LSU in the event for the first time since 2014.
The Bulldogs and Tigers tangled in Baton Rouge on March 11 with Mississippi State walking away with a 4-3 win. The Bulldogs claimed the doubles point that day thanks to the pairings of Florian Broska and Gregor Ramskogler as well as Nemanja Malesevic and Davide Tortora.
Broska and Malesevic went on to win their singles matches against Ronald Hohmann and Vlad Lokback, respectively. It was Alberto Colas who clinched the match for MSU with his 6-0, 7-6(3) victory over Benjamin Ambrosio.
The win was the sixth straight for the Bulldogs against LSU. The Tigers’ last win in the series came during the 2016 ITA Kickoff in Tampa, Fla.
No. 34 Mississippi State finished the regular season with a 14-11 overall record and a 4-8 mark in league play. The Bulldogs split last weekend at home with a 6-1 victory over Vanderbilt but lost by the same score to Kentucky in the finale on Sunday.
Broska enters Thursday’s match ranked 22nd in singles and 41st in doubles along with Ramskogler. Broska has 97 career singles victories and needs one more to match Romain Ambert for fifth all-time at MSU.
Broska and Malesevic are tied for the team lead with seven victories against ranked opponents during dual match play and each have 21 singles wins this season. Malesevic tops the Bulldogs with a 18-6 overall record this spring.
Ramskogler has won four of his past five singles matches while Tortora has claimed three of his last four in singles.
LSU comes into the SEC Championship ranked 42nd nationally. The Tigers also went 4-8 in the conference and were 14-10 overall.
LSU lost four of its final five matches but did end the regular season with a 4-3 victory against Arkansas at home on Sunday. Hohmann is the only Tiger in the ITA rankings at No. 42 and fell to Broska in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 during their previous meeting in March.
The winner of Thursday’s match will have SEC regular season champion Florida waiting for them on Friday at 2 p.m. CT.
For more information on the Bulldog men’s tennis program, visit HailState.com or search for “HailStateMT” onTwitter, Instagram and Facebook.
