Bulldog Bits
Men's Tennis
NORMAN, Okla. – Despite turning in another tremendous effort, 18th-ranked Mississippi State (21-9) fell in a tough battle to 14th-ranked Oklahoma (17-10) as the Sooners earned a 4-1 victory over the Bulldogs to advance to the 2017 NCAA Round of 16 in Athens, Ga.
Oklahoma was the No. 14 seed nationally and advanced to the round of 16 for the fifth consecutive season as a program. The Sooners have finished the last three seasons with a NCAA finalist appearance as well.
“I'm so proud of what this team has accomplished this year,” MSU head coach Matt Roberts said. “They not only exceled on the court with great results, but established an amazing culture for future Bulldog teams. Hats off to Oklahoma, they played a great match and didn't give anything easily.”
State finished the 2017 season with a 21-9 record, which marked the most wins for any Bulldog squad since 1998.
“Words cannot describe what Mate and Vaughn have done for this program,” Roberts said. “The seniors have played a huge role in laying the foundation for our program. I'm proud of how they pushed themselves this season and became great men that will succeed in whatever they do in life.”
Saturday's match began with each team dueling it out in doubles action. The Sooners took the first decision on court one after No. 15 Spencer Papa and Andrew Harris downed No. 8 Niclas Braun and Trevor Foshey, 6-2. Soon
after, Oklahoma's 66th-ranked pair of Florin Bragusi and Alex Ghilea clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 win over Mate Cutura and Vaughn Hunter.
Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic's match against Oklahoma's Jochen Bertsch and Adrian Oetzbach was suspended at 4-4.
In singles action, the Sooners carried momentum to take four of the first six sets. Three of those first sets came down to a tiebreaker, with Oklahoma taking two of the three. The Sooners picked up their first win in singles action after Oklahoma's No. 32 Harris defeated Cutura 6-4, 6-3. On Court three, the Sooners extended their lead after No. 47 Ghilea edged out MSU's No. 115 Rakic 7-5, 6-4.
Trailing 3-0, the Bulldogs pushed back to take a decision on court six after freshman Simon Baudry earned a 7-6(7), 6-2 win over Oetzbach to trim the Sooner lead. Oklahoma was feeling the heat after No. 4 Borges surged
to a lead on court one and Braun forced a third set, but Bertsch outlasted freshman Giovanni Oradini 7-6(6), 6-4 to seal the 4-1 win for the Sooners.
Track and Field
COLUMBIA, SC. – An hour after competing in the 1500-meter final and scoring a combined nine team points, the Price twins competed in the 800 meters and gutted out another point for MSU.
Rhianwedd Price placed fourth in the 1500 meters and scored five points for MSU, while her sister Ffion placed fifth in the 1500 meters and eighth in the 800 meters to add another five points to the board for the women's squad.
Tiffany Flynn, a triple jump indoor All-American, placed eighth with a jump of 12.97 meters. Freshman Alexis Farley recorded the best triple jump mark of any freshman in the conference with a leap of 12.63 meters.
Logan Boss grabbed another five points for the women's squad by taking fourth in the high jump with a leap of 1.80 meters.
Sophomore Rasheed Tatham put forth the best performance by a underclassman in the 400-meter hurdle, capturing four points after grabbing fifth place with a mark of 51.20.
The men's 4x400 meter relay group of Stephan James, Rasheed Tatham, Charles Taylor and Juston Waters grabbed another point by placing eighth. The team ran 3:05.65.
“I am proud of the way our team competed this weekend,” MSU coach Steve Dudley said. “This conference is so deep, and I think a lot of our young athletes got a taste of just how good this league is this weekend. We are excited to move on to regionals, and we are going to keep working to make sure we are up to the task.”
In the final event of his collegiate career, senior JaQuarius Wilson put forth one of the best decathlon performances in school history and captured eighth place to secure another team point for the Bulldogs.
In total, Wilson recorded four personal bests over the two-day, 10-event competition. He saved his best performance for last, finishing second in the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:35.23.
Women's Tennis
ATLANTA, Ga. – The 18th-ranked and Mississippi State women's tennis team (159) fell in a tough 4-1 battle to 39th-ranked Northwestern (15-11) in the opening round of the 2017 NCAA Tennis Championship Saturday at Georgia Tech's Ken Byers Tennis Complex.
Northwestern came out strong in doubles to take the early 1-0 lead. On court 3, Northwestern's Rheeya Doshi and Jillian Rooney ousted MSU's Jennifer Brown and Khrystyna Vozniak 6-2. To clinch the doubles point, the Wildcat tandem of Erin Larner and Lee Or downed State's Madison Harrison and Sara Lizariturry 6-4 at the No. 2 position. The remaining match was suspended with the 15th-ranked Wildcat pair of Alex Chatt and Maddie Lipp leading the second-ranked Bulldog pair of Jasmine Lee and Lisa Marie Rioux 5-3 at No. 1.
With two players battling ankle injuries sustained recently in practice – one that sidelined the senior All-American Lee in singles Saturday and another that hampered sophomore Anastasia Rentouli – State still put up a strong effort in singles.
On court 1, No. 82 Wildcat Larner retired the State rookie Rioux 6-0, 6-1 to extend Northwestern's lead to 2-0. Following on court 2, Northwestern's Lipp held off MSU's No. 113 Harrison in a close second set tiebreaker to go on for a 6-0, 7-6(4) win to extend the Wildcat lead to 3-0.
The Bulldogs got their lone point of the day when the true freshman Lizariturry retired Northwestern's Chatt in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 at the No. 5 position. However, the excitement was short lived as the Wildcats' Or fought back to defeat State's Vozniak 2-6, 6-1, 6-3, clinching the 4-1 victory for Northwestern.
The remaining two matches were suspended with MSU's Rentouli tied in the third set 6-3, 4-6, 1-1 on court 3 and State's Brown trailing in a close contest – 7-5, 4-3 on court 6.
“We faced a lot of adversity with recent injuries and we were not able to overcome the loss of our top player,” State head coach Daryl Greenan said. “Credit to a quality Northwestern team who were just too tough for us to overcome (Saturday). We are all disappointed we were not able to put in our best showing but I am proud of the season we have had.”