Men's Golf
STARKVILLE, Miss. - One week after its third-place finish at the Mason Rudolph
Championship, the Mississippi State men's golf team travels to Memphis, Tenn.,
as they return to competition at the Memphis Intercollegiate. MSU will look to
continue building on their improvement this fall season as they compete in the
16-team field at the Colonial Country Club in Memphis,Tenn.
Making the trip will be senior Carlos Sainz, Jr., who is coming off back-to-back
top-10 finishes this season. Fellow senior Noah Goldman will be seeing his
third tournament action of the fall, following his even-par performance at the
Mason Rudolph Championship.
Seniors Josh Bevell and Matt Fast, along with redshirt-freshman Lee Heaton round
out the lineup for the Bulldogs, as all three have competed in fall tournaments
thus far. Heaton is coming of a ninth-place finish at the Mason Rudolph
Championship with a three day total of 212. Bevell is second on the team this
fall with an average 18-hole score of 73. Fast fired a score of 221 at the
Carpet Capital Classic earlier this season.
Senior Logan Young will also make the trip with the Bulldogs and will play the
Intercollegiate as an individual, but will not be included amongst MSU's team
score.
The 16-team field will include Arkansas State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisville, Maryland, host Memphis, Mississippi,
Ohio State, Rice, South Florida, South Alabama, Southern Mississippi State,
Wisconsin, and Xavier.
Mississippi State will be paired with Ohio State and Wisconsin for day one. Tee
times are set to begin at 8 a.m. CT and live stats can be found through
www.mstateathletics.com for the tournament.
Soccer
AUBURN, Ala. - The Mississippi State soccer team concluded its opening Southeastern Conference road swing Sunday, dropping a 6-0 decision to Auburn at the Auburn Soccer Stadium.
The loss, MSU’s fourth straight, drops the Bulldogs to 5-8 overall and 0-4 in SEC play. Auburn improves to 6-4-2 and 2-0-1 in conference action.
The Bulldogs were out-shot in the contest 14-6, while junior goalkeeper Taryn Holland made seven saves on the afternoon. The junior from Franklin, Tenn., now has 80 saves on the season and 230 for her career. That career tally places her second all-time ahead Emily Myers (2004-05).
State managed just a Heather Buttrey shot on goal in the opening half before taking two more in the final session from Mary Kate Ayers and Hannah Tyler.
Auburn took an early 4-0 lead in a 10-minute span of the opening half. The first came after Holland made an outstanding point-blank save on a Kara Kasten shot. On the ensuing play, however, Chelsea Yauch sent a cross through the box that found Katy Frierson for the 1-0 lead.
Seven minutes later Frierson delivered a pass to Stephanie Fransoso that she put into the net for a 2-0 advantage. Frierson added her second goal of the day to put AU up 3-0, and Kasten extended the lead to 5-0 with goals at the 18:09 and 28:58 marks. Kasten completed the hat trick in the opening five minutes of the second half. Rebecca Howell worked the right side of the field and delivered a pass to the middle that Kasten knocked into the goal for a 6-0 lead.
"Give Auburn a lot of credit; they played very well today," MState head coach Neil Macdonald said. "We found ourselves behind early and could never fight back. We have to put this game behind us and get ready for a tough trip to South Carolina and Florida."
The Bulldogs continue their four-match SEC road swing next weekend, meeting South Carolina on Friday at 6 p.m. CST and Florida at noon CST on Friday.
Women's Tennis
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Mississippi State’s women’s tennis team picked up two victories in singles play on the third and final day of action at the Hoosier Classic Sunday, both wins coming from a pair of freshmen.
The two wins for the Lady Bulldogs came from rookies Olesya Tsigvintseva and Natalya Mayuk, who had an outstanding tournament overall with a 5-1 combined record. Picking up her second victory on the weekend, Tsigvintseva ousted Julie Blackmore of Ohio State 6-4, 6-2. Meanwhile, Mayuk completed a 3-0 sweep through the weekend, defeating another Ohio State counterpart in Julie Voss 6-3, 7-5.
In others singles action Sunday, State senior Martina Banikova did not play on Sunday, while teammates Elna de Villiers, Valeriya Makarycheva, Jordan Zachary, and Elizabeth Hall played in their final matches at the event. De Villiers and Makarycheva both fell in tough three-set affairs while Zachary and Hall were bested in straight-set decisions.
Looking to build on this weekend’s performance, the Lady Bulldogs will return to action in the Ole Miss Fall Classic this coming weekend, Oct. 10-12.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Mississippi State’s Lady Netters completed the second day of action at the Hoosier Classic Saturday, picking up several doubles wins and one singles victory.
In the Crimson Draw of the doubles’ brackets, MSU’s tandem of Radka Ferancova and Olesya Tsigvintseva rebounded from their loss yesterday to win the consolation side of the draw. Ferancova and Tsigvintseva defeated the duo of Chelsea Preeg and Heather Steinbauer of SEC-foe Vanderbilt in a 9-8 tiebreaker. Wrapping up the consolation prize, the MSU pair defeated another VU tandem in Erica Robertson and Jackie WU by default.
Meanwhile, in the Cream Draw on the doubles side the State pair of Martina Banikova and Valeriya Makarycheva picked up the 3rd place prize. In their first match of the day, Banikova and Makarycheva lost to Hannah Blatt and Keilly Ulery of Vanderbilt 9-8, but rebounded to defeat Vanessa Cottin and Mariya Slupska of Kansas State 8-5 to win 3rd place in the bracket. Also, the State team of Elna de Villiers and Natalya Mayuk ousted the Indiana State pair of Sarah Meghoufel and Sofia Lifanova 8-4 before falling to Kelsey Haviland and Julie Voss of Ohio State 8-4 in the consolation finals.
In singles play, Mississippi State’s lone victory came from freshman Natalya Mayuk who defeated Maria Guerreiro of Indiana in two tie-breaker sets 7-6, 7-6.
Also competing in singles action were Olesya Tsigvintseva, Martina Banikova, Radka Ferancova, Elna de Villiers, Elizabeth Hall, and Jordan Zachary.
The Lady Bulldogs will be back in action tomorrow, as they wrap up play at the 2008 Hoosier Classic.
Volleyball
STARKVILLE, Miss. - No. 10 Florida (12-1, 6-0 SEC) staved off a
determined Mississippi State challenge in the second set and cruised on
a 3-0 win over the Bulldogs (6-10, 1-4 SEC) Sunday at the Newell-Grissom
Building. The Gators claimed a 25-15 decision in the opening set and
turned back State 25-22 in set No. 2 before cruising on to a
match-clinching 25-11 set three win.
"I continue to see improvement each time we play, even against a very
talented and well-coached team like Florida," said MSU head coach Tina
Seals. "It’s encouraging to see our kids continue to compete hard
and get better. And they are adapting to playing without one of our
better players (senior outside hitter Cristina Jucan)."
Jucan, projected as the offensive leader for State in 2008, is
sidelined indefinitely with a back injury and has missed the last five
matches.
Current national and SEC player of the week Kelly Murphy led the Gators
to their 12th win in 13 matches. Murphy tallied 15 kills and hit a
sizzling .524. Kristy Jaeckel finished with 12 kills, including eight in
the opening set when Florida stretched a 14-12 lead into a 25-15 win.
Ashley Newsome and freshman Grace Hoyt, making her first SEC start of
the year, combined for a block that gave State an early 3-1 edge in that
opening stanza.
Ioana Demian registered four of her team-leading nine kills in the
second set as State threatened to even the match with solid play at the
net. Demian knotted the score at 19-19 with a kill and Newsome followed
with an unassisted kill following a Gator overpass to put State on top
20-19. State out-hit Florida in the set.258 to .147, but Florida
parlayed a pair of MSU hitting errors and a combined three kills by
Murphy and Jaeckel to storm back for a 25-22 win at the break.
Florida raced out to a 3-1 lead only to see the Bulldogs pull ahead 8-7
moments later on a kill by Demian. State would get but one more kill in
the match as the Gators, riding the strong serving of Jaeckel, went on
an 11-0 run that sealed the match.
Newsome and Faith Steinwedell finished with six kills and five total
blocks each to pace State. State out-blocked Florida 9-3 in total team
blocks.
The advantage at the service line went Florida’s way. The gators
served up nine aces with just three service errors, while State, held
without an ace for the first time since 2006, had five service errors.
The Bulldogs return to action Friday in Oxford, Miss., taking on
instate SEC rival Ole Miss (7-7, 3-2 SEC) in a 7 p.m. match at UM’s
Gillom Sports Center.