Starkville, Miss. – The Wildcats ended their ITA Kickoff Weekend in a 4-1 loss to the SEC Champions. Against one of the top teams in the country, sophomore Filip Malbasic put the Cats on the board with a gritty 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) victory over senior Strahinja Rakic. Rakic started the season ranked as the 43^rdsingles player and the win improves Malbasic to 3-0 on the season.
 
The Wildcats may be leaving Starkville without any hardware, but you can anticipate the group of young men will continue to improve over the course of the season. 
 
 "Congratulations to Mississippi State, they deserved to win today," said head coach Clancy Shields. "They showed us some very good lessons that we need to learn. Their guys compete for every single point, and on the big points they attack and keep the pressure on. We are going to learn a ton from this match, we played our tails off and are hungry to improve. Congratulations to Filip on the win today, this should give him a lot of confidence moving forward."                  
 
The Wildcats will look to get back on track when Pepperdine University comes to town on Feb. 3, 2019. Come out to the Robson Tennis Center at 1 pm (MST) to support your Wildcats when they take on the Waves.
 
Results
 
Singles 
1. # 11 Nuno Borges (MS) def. Igor Karpovets (ARIZ) 6-2, 6-2 
2. Giovanni Oradini (MS) vs. Jonas Ziverts (ARIZ) 7-6 (8-6), 5-4, unfinished 
3. Filip Malbasic (ARIZ) def. Strahinja Rakic (MS) 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) 
4. #67 Niclas Braun (MS) vs. Alejandro Reguant (ARIZ) 6-3, 6-5, unfinished
5. #93 Trevor Foshey (MS) def. Jonas Maier (ARIZ) 6-4, 7-6 (8-6)
6. #78 Florian Broska (MS) def. Carlos Hassey (ARIZ) 6-3, 6-3
Order of finish:1, 6, 3, 5
 
Doubles 
1. #36 Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic (MS) def. Stewart Block/Igor Karpovets (ARIZ) 6-3
2. #7 Niclas Braun/Giovanni Oradini (MS) def. Hassey/Ziverts (ARIZ) 6-2
3. Trevor Foshey/Gregor Ramskogler (MS) vs. Jonas Maier/Alejandro Reguant (ARIZ) 5-2, unfinished
Order of finish: 1, 2
 
 
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