Lions open month with homecoming outing with Tigers
CLEMSON, S.C. – Mississippi State’s five-man contingent got off to a slow start at the Clemson Invite on Friday.
The Bulldogs only entered the win column once for the day against the host Tigers. No. 92 Alberto Colas earned the lone MSU victory over Spencer Whitaker 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-1.
The Bulldogs lost their other four singles matches and were swept in both doubles outings.
Carles Hernandez fell 6-4, 6-2 to No. 80 Teodor Giusca, Gregor Ramskogler dropped a decision to Ryuhei Azuma 6-4, 6-2, No. 54 Davide Tortora was upset by Jorge Plans Gonzales 2-6, 7-6(8), 7-5 and Seth Richey was defeated by
Daniel Labrador 6-2, 6-2.
In doubles action, Azuma and Whitaker teamed up to beat Hernandez and Colas 7-6(5) and Giusca and Andrew Puscas won over Ramskogler and Tortora.
Richey also played a doubles match teamed alongside Liberty’s Omar El Kadi but also came up short 7-5 to Gonzalez and Labrador.
State’s two highestranked players – No. 27 Florian Broska and No. 36 Nemanja Malesevic – are not in Clemson having both participated at the ITA All-american in Tulsa, Okla., this week.
The Bulldogs are back at it today taking on members of Liberty’s team at 9 a.m.
Women’s tennis
MOUNT PLEASANT,
S.C., - Two members of Mississippi State’s women’s tennis team finished off their run at the ITA All-american with a near upset win over the seventhranked doubles team in the country on Friday.
The No. 41 pairing of Emmanouela Antonaki and Tamara Racine played hard but fell in a three- set nailbiter to Bronte Murgett and Marta Oliviera of Missouri 6-3, 4-6(11-9) in the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket.
“Emma and Tamara represented the Bulldogs well among the top players in the country this week,” MSU head coach Daryl Greenan said. “Just qualifying for this national event is a solid accomplishment. I am happy with the way they competed in both wins and losses. They showed they belong and should be an inspiration to the rest of our team, who are all capable of playing at this level.”
This was Antonaki and Racine’s third straight match against a ranked opponent. They took down No. 38 Anna and Carolyn Campana of Wake Forest 9-8(5) in Thursday’s action. The duo also took on Michigan State’s No. 28 tandem of Mary Lewis and Maja Pietrowicz also on Thursday, but fell by a score of 8-6.
Antonaki and Racine now join with the rest of the team in Starkville to gear up for the ITA Southern Regional that goes from Oct. 14-19 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
SCOOBA – Following a September sweep, the sixthranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College will welcome the visiting Northeast Mississippi Tigers for today’s homecoming contest on the Scooba campus.
Kickoff for the MACCC North Division gridiron meeting is set for 2 p.m. at EMCC’S Sullivan-windham Field.
Settled in at the No. 6 spot in the NJCAA’S Division I football poll for the second straight week, EMCC is set to kick off October’s slate on the heels of putting together a 5-0 month of September. Following wins over MACCC South Division foes East Central (32-7) and Southwest Mississippi (49-7) to begin the season, the Lions have started MACCC North Division play with victories over Mississippi Delta (56-3), Holmes (49-7) and then-no. 13 Northwest Mississippi (30-21).
Despite coming off a season-low scoring effort as well as giving up more than one score in a game for the first time this season during last week’s win over the Northwest Rangers, East Mississippi continues to top the MACCC in scoring offense (43.2 points per game – sixth in NJCAA) and scoring defense (nine points per game – second in NJCAA).
EMCC’S high-scoring offense is engineered by sophomore quarterback Jamari Jones, who entered the week ranked tied for third nationally with an MACCC-HIGH 15 touchdown passes after throwing for multiple scores for the fourth consecutive week and reaching the 300yard passing mark (328) for the second time this year a week ago at Northwest. Along with averaging 232.2 passing yards per game (third in MACCC) and completing 62% of his passes this season, the Northwest Rankin High School product also ranks as EMCC’S second-leading rusher for the year with 199 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.
The Lions showcase five different receivers with double-digit catches this season, led by Josh Aka (Starkville) and Jontarius Henderson (Laurel) with 20 receptions each. Zach Patterson (Corinth) follows with 13 catches and a team-high four touchdown grabs, while Kevin Barnett (Oak Grove High School) and running back Zias Perryman (Laurel) are next with 11 and 10 receptions, respectively.
On the heels of his career-best, 129-yard rushing effort on 18 carries during last week’s crucial road victory over Northwest Mississippi, Perryman rates as EMCC’S leading ball carrier for the year with 310 rushing yards and a team-most four scores via the ground.
Defensively as a team this season, the Lions have totaled 37 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including 16 quarterback sacks. Following his season-best, 13-tackle performance a week ago against the Rangers, Syracuse transfer Lee Kpogba (Winston-salem, North Carolina) has registered a team-high 43 total stops this year. South Florida transfer Trey Laing (Tallahassee, Florida) and freshman defensive lineman Devonyal Lofton (Forest) share the club lead with five quarterback sacks each. Within EMCC’S defensive secondary, freshman strong safety Jeremy Mack Jr. (Clinton) is tied for second nationally with his three pass interceptions that were picked off during successive games.
Having reclaimed the top spot on the NJCAA’S all-time list for highest career winning percentage among coaches with 100 or more career games coached, EMCC’S Buddy Stephens owns a 13-season career coaching record of 12117 for an impressive .877 career winning percentage. The Lions are unbeaten (12-0) in homecoming contests during the Stephens era, while he owns an 11-1 career mark versus Northeast. Two years ago (Oct. 26, 2019) in homecoming action against the Tigers, the Lions clinched a state playoff berth with a 30-22 victory over Northeast in the regular-season finale. In that most recent meeting, EMCC jumped out to a 30-0 lead over NEMCC early in the second half and then withstood three unanswered scores by the visitors to improve to 6-3 heading into 2019 playoff action.
Today’s homecoming game will be broadcast live by WFCA-FM (107.9), out of French Camp, with Jason Crowder and Glen Beard slated to provide the play-by-play and color commentary, respectively. The game’s live-streamed audio will also be carried through EMCC’S campus radio station, WGTC-FM (92.7), originating from the Golden Triangle campus in Mayhew. In addition, EMCC’S weekly live video-streamed football broadcasts will be available in HD at Emccathletics.com/live. Alternate audio streams of the radio broadcasts are also available at wfca.fm.