STARKVILLE, Miss. –The No. 20 Florida State men’s tennis team was handed its first loss of the season to No. 17 Mississippi State in a Friday afternoon matchup at the Rula Tennis Pavilion.
“I thought there’s two keys to the match, we didn’t play good enough in the big moments and lost three 7-5 first sets that we had chances to win,” head coach Dwayne Hultquist said. “Up and down the line it was very tight but still a disappointing loss.”
The junior pairing of Alex Bulte and Jamie Connel led their match 5-4 before the doubles point was won on the other courts.
Florida State fell in the doubles matches with three close duels. Lyon, France, natives Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous-Karpenschif fell to the 24th-ranked doubles pairing in collegiate tennis, Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez 6-4 while Loris Pourroy and Youcef Rihane dropped their match 6-3.
Cornut-Chauvinc earned a statement victory with a straight-set 6-4, 7-5 win over Jovanovic, the 13th-ranked singles player in the country. Cornut-Chauvinc took the first set before facing the threat of a third set as he was down 4-5. From there, he rattled off three straight games to take the set and lone point for the Seminoles in thrilling fashion.
Dous-Karpenschif lost in two sets with matching 6-4 defeats in both frames.
Rihane and Connel both lost their first sets by identical 7-5 scores before falling in the following set. Connel took his opponent to the brink in each set with two 7-5 losses.
Pourroy lost his first set in a tough 7-5 finish before nearly mounting a comeback from trailing 5-0 in the second frame while Bulte won his first set but lost the remaining two sets to drop the match.
“I think mainly it’s converting on a couple of the early set points we had that could’ve really changed the match a lot,” Hultquist commented.
Florida State sits at 2-1 and now makes the short drive east on Route 82 to Tuscaloosa and meets with Alabama on Sunday. The matchup with the Crimson Tide will begin at noon Eastern Time. Live stats and video will be available on Seminoles.com.
#17 Mississippi State 6, #20 Florida State 1
Singles Competition:
Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc (FSU) def. #13 Petar Jovanovic (MSU) 6-4, 7-5
Nemanja Malesevic (MSU) def. Loris Pourroy (FSU) 7-5, 6-3
Dusan Milanovic (MSU) def. #97 Jamie Connel (FSU) 7-5, 7-5
Carles Hernandez (MSU) def. Youcef Rihane (FSU) 7-5, 6-4
Benito Sanchez Martinez (MSU) def. Joshua Dous-Karpenschif (FSU) 6-4, 6-4
Radomir Tomic (MSU) def. Alex Bulte (FSU) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Doubles Competition:
#24 Petar Jovanovic/Benito Sanchez Martinez (MSU) def. Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc/Joshua Dous-Karpenschif (FSU) 6-4
Carles Hernandez/Dusan Milanovic (MSU) def. #52 Loris Pourroy/Youcef Rihane (FSU) 6-3
Jamie Connel/Alex Bulte (FSU) vs. Marshall Landry/Nemanja Malesevic (MSU) 5-4, unfinished
Order of Finish: Singles (5, 1, 4, 3, 2, 6) Doubles (2, 1)
For more information on the Florida State men’s tennis program, check Seminoles.com and follow us on social media at FSUMTennis (IG) and @FSUMTennis (X).