STARKVILLE, Miss. | South Alabama got down early and couldn't recover, suffering their first loss of the season at the hands of Mississippi State.
South earned an early win at number two doubles, with the duo of Sebastien Collard and Steyn Dippenaar winning 6-3. Mississippi State then earned a win at number one doubles, with #42 Charles Hernandez and Nemanja Malesevic beating #16
Jack Clements/
Louis Delcour 6-3. The attention then turned to court three, where Mississippi State clinched the point with a 7-5 win after a back-and-forth battle against
Juan Accossatto and
Maxime St-Hilaire.
South was winning in singles early on courts one and four, but Mississippi State made a comeback and gained momentum on all courts. B. Sanchez Martinez of Mississippi State beat
Juan Accossatto 6-2, 6-1 on court five to extend the Bulldog lead to 2-0. Mississippi State extended their lead and clinched the match with wins on courts four and two, with Ewen Lumsden beating
Javier Montoya 6-2, 6-1, and 2. Petar Jovanovic beating
Jack Clements 6-3, 6-3.
With a 4-0 lead, Dippenaar of South Alabama dropped his match against Michal Novansky (MS) (USA) 2-6, 3-6 and Hernandez defeated St-Hilaire 6-1, 6-4.
Collard battled on court one, playing three sets, but ultimately dropped his match with Malesevic.
Match Results
January 15, 2023
2 pm – Starkville, Miss.
Singles
1. Nemanja Malesevic (MS) def. Sebastien Collard (USA) 0-6, 6-1, 6-4
2. Petar Jovanovic (MS) def.
Jack Clements (USA) 6-3, 6-3
3. Carles Hernandez (MS) def.
Maxime St-Hilaire (USA) 6-1, 6-4
4. Ewen Lumsden (MS) def.
Javier Montoya (USA) 6-2, 6-1
5. B. Sanchez Martinez (MS) def.
Juan Accossatto (USA) 6-2, 6-1
6. Michal Novansky (MS) def. Steyn Dippenaar (USA) 6-2, 6-3
Doubles
1. #42 Carles Hernandez/Nemanja Malesevic (MS) def. #16
Jack Clements/
Louis Delcour (USA) 6-3
2. Sebastien Collard/Steyn Dippenaar (USA) def. Ewen Lumsden/Michal Novansky (MS) 6-3
3. Petar Jovanovic/Gregor Ramskogler (MS) def.
Juan Accossatto/
Maxime St-Hilaire (USA) 7-5
Quotable from coach Nick Brochu
"The score is not always representative of how the match went. Tennis is a big momentum sport and I think we had a chance to get momentum and we missed it. We lost number one doubles while winning number two, so it came down to number three and we battled back-and-forth and couldn't capitalize on match points. That was a big turning point. When you're so close to winning and you don't, that's a big letdown. We couldn't close the match and after that the adrenaline went down and we just played sloppy. That's something we need to work on, we've gotta get back on our feet and fight again. We missed our chance to go up 1-0.
In singles, we went up on a couple of courts, but the only problem was that when Mississippi State rose their level of play, we got surprised. We were playing good level tennis but when they stepped up, we reacted slow. On some courts, we got up early but as soon as they fought back, we couldn't handle it. I am happy with the way we played, but we've gotta learn that sometimes you'll throw punches and you've gotta be ready for them to throw punches too.
It was great level of play, that's why we play those big teams, to see the level of top 20. We gotta learn from it and make sure we keep it up the rest of the season when we play non-top 20 teams and conference opponents. Overall I thought we were good, we are a young team and we need to grow but we saw some positives today."
Up Next
South Alabama returns home to the Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts on Saturday to host Furman at 1 p.m.
Follow the Jags
For complete coverage of University South Alabama men's tennis, follow the Jaguars on social media @SouthAlabamaJaguars (Twitter), /SouthAlabamaMTN (Facebook), @southalabamamtn (Instagram) or visit the official home of South Alabama athletics at USAJaguars.com.
