No. 22 Georgia Drops Tough 4-3 Decision to No. 8 Mississippi State

Sunday, March 24

Starkville, MS

2 p.m. ET

University of Georgia

Mississippi State

Georgia's Walker Duncan chats with his doubles partner Georgia's Emil Reinberg during a men's tennis match against the University of Florida in Athens, Ga., on Friday, Mar. 15, 2019. (Photo by Kristin M. Bradshaw)

No. 22 Georgia Drops Tough 4-3 Decision to No. 8 Mississippi State

March 24, 2019 | Men's Tennis

STARKVILLE, Miss. —The No. 22 Georgia men's tennis team fell, 4-3, in a hard-fought match against No. 8 Mississippi State on Sunday afternoon at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre in Starkville, Mississippi.

"I couldn't ask for much more from our team today," Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz said. "One second, we're cruising 5-2, 30-0, in the third, with Philip [Henning] readying to clinch the match. The next second, Philip gets hurt and can't move the rest of the way, but such is the sport. Tennis has a way of testing you. Our guys did great, and credit to Mississippi State. It turned another match around after being down a set and a break. We will fight on. We have a lot of resilience."

Georgia clinched 6-3 wins on courts one and three to take the doubles point and 1-0 lead over the State Bulldogs. Georgia's combo of Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb won the first game to go up 1-0 over the pair's Mississippi State opponents. State held its serve to tie the first set at 2-2. However, the Bulldogs answered by holding serve on their next two games and breaking the State Bulldogs' serve for the 5-2 advantage. Though Mississippi State managed to win one more game, Loeb and Zielinski pulled away with the 6-3 win.

On court three, the Bulldogs' freshman duo of Trent Bryde and Philip Henning engaged in a back-and-forth match. Mississippi State was able to tie the match three times, the last being at 3-3. However, Georgia won the last three games for the 6-3 victory and 1-0 Georgia lead heading into singles play.

Georgia got off to a slow start in singles, with losses at courts one and four giving State a 2-1 lead. The Bulldogs answered with wins on courts three and six by Bryde and Walker Duncan, respectively. First, Bryde won his first set, 6-1, before winning a second-set tiebreaker (7-5) to tie it at 2-all. Duncan followed up with his third-set victory (5-7, 6-1, 6-4), helping Georgia regain a 3-2 lead. However, the Bulldogs fell at remaining courts two and five. On the verge of clinching the match for Georgia on court five, Henning went down with an injury and was unable to close, his opponent eventually taking the win for State's 4-3 victory.

Next, the Bulldogs return home to host No. 21 Alabama at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on Friday, March 29, at 5 p.m.