STARKVILLE, Miss. — A four-hour battle that came down to the final points fell the way of No. 10 Mississippi State as the Bulldogs hung on for a 4-3 win over Vanderbilt at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre on Saturday.
“First off, credit to Mississippi State,” head coach Scott Brown said. “They showed why they are a top-10 team in the country – they competed hard. We went up early against them, and they came back and fought the whole time. But for our guys to come out in their first SEC match, outside without much prep, and on the road in front of a tough crowd, I was really proud of them. It’s not easy to play in Starkville, but I was really proud of our guys showing how tough we are today.”
The Commodores produced their strongest doubles performance of the season so far, highlighted by senior Nathan Cox and freshman Hoyoung Roh knocking off No. 4 Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez 6-1. It is the first ranked win for the pair in just their second doubles match together. Mississippi State (9-1) rebounded at the No. 2 position. The deciding match was sealed by junior Hugo Coquelin and freshman Jack Satterfield, as the duo downed Bryan Hernandez Cortes and Raphael Vaksmann 6-4.
“We tried some new pairings this weekend and I like how we came out in doubles,” Brown said. “It felt like there was a lot of chemistry between the teams. We’ll see what happens, but I don’t want to look too much into the doubles point. We got it today, but doubles is tough no matter if you’re the favorite or not. It’s one set with no-ad scoring, so anybody can pull off a win. We still have things to work, and we’ll keep pushing.”
Vanderbilt (8-3) increased the pressure in singles, taking five of six first set leads. Four of those, however, were pushed to third sets as Mississippi State began to punch back. The Bulldogs evened the score 1-1 after generating their first point courtesy of a 6-3, 6-1 win from Benito Sanchez Martinez at No. 6 singles. Satterfield quickly snatched back the advantage for the Dores, sinking Michal Novansky 7-6 (6), 6-2. After Mississippi State came out on top in the next two matches, Cox delivered yet another singles win for the black and gold. His 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 defeat of Vaksmann extends his career-best streak to 10 straight victories.
With both teams knotted at 3-3, the match was decided at Court 3 between junior Danil Panarin and No. 43 Mario Martinez Serrano. Panarin snagged the first set 7-6 (1) before the second also went to a tiebreaker, in which Martinez Serrano sent it the distance by a score of 7-6 (3). It seemed as though Martinez Serrano had captured the momentum after jumping out to a 4-1 advantage in the final set. Despite a raucous home crowd, Panarin roared back and ultimately tied the set at four games apiece. The match went to 5-5 before Martinez Serrano fended off Panarin to move up 6-5. The Bulldog held strong in the final moments and ultimately clinched the match for Mississippi State 4-3.
“I know if we keep putting ourselves in these positions, we’re going to win more often than we lose,” Brown concluded. “It just didn’t go our way today. We had an opportunity to shut the door on them, and we weren’t able to finish it out, but that’s tennis. It happens sometimes. Our guys gave it their all. We’re going to use this and get better, win or lose; that’s just what we do. That’s how we go about things – it’s our culture. And we are going to keep showing, and the SEC is going to keep finding out, how tough we are, starting when we come back home to play Tennessee on Monday. Our guys are going to have an extra chip on their shoulder and use this as motivation.”
It will be a quick turnaround for Vanderbilt, who returns to Nashville for a rivalry matchup with Tennessee (6-5) on Monday at the Lummis Family Tennis Center. For more information, updates and exclusive game day content, follow the Vanderbilt men’s tennis team, @VandyMTennis, on Instagram and X.
No. 10 Mississippi State 4, No. 37 Vanderbilt 3
Doubles
1. Cox/Hoyoung [Vanderbilt] def. No. 4 Jovanovic/Sanchez Martinez [Mississippi State] 6-1
2. No. 47 Martinez Serrano/Novansky [Mississippi State] def. Martinez Gomez/Panarin [Vanderbilt] 6-3
3. Coquelin/Satterfield [Vanderbilt] def. Hernandez Cortes/Vaksmann [Mississippi State] 6-4
Singles
1. No. 47 Sanchez Martinez [Mississippi State] def. Hoyoung [Vanderbilt] 1-6, 6-2, 6-2
2. No. 10 Jovanovic [Mississippi State] def. Martinez Gomez [Vanderbilt] 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
3. No. 43 Martinez Serrano [Mississippi State] def. Panarin [Vanderbilt] 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 7-5
4. Cox [Vanderbilt] def. Vaksmann [Mississippi State] 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
5. Satterfield [Vanderbilt] def. Novansky [Mississippi State] 7-6 (6), 6-2
6. Hernandez Cortes [Mississippi State] def. Coquelin [Vanderbilt] 6-3, 6-1
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (6,5,1,2,4,3)
