Men’s Tennis Set For NCAA Quarterfinal Match Against Stanford

NCAA Quarterfinals
[12] No. 12 Mississippi State vs [4] No. 5 Stanford
Friday, May 16 at 1 p.m. CT
Waco, Texas | Hurd Tennis Center
Live Video | Live Scores | X/Twitter | Bracket

WACO, Texas – Mississippi State and Stanford will meet for just the fifth time in program history when the two squads square off in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. The match between the Bulldogs (25-5) and the Cardinal (25-5) is scheduled for a 1 p.m. CT start at the Hurd Tennis Center on the campus of Baylor University.

Friday's contest will be State's seventh all-time appearance in the NCAA Quarterfinals and the first since 2018. This is the second time under the direction of head coach Matt Roberts that the Bulldogs have played in the Elite Eight.

Mississippi State Notes
• The Bulldogs have won 20+ matches for the sixth time under coach Roberts, the most all-time. Andy Jackson is second with three 20+ win seasons. Roberts' 212 career wins at State are third all-time.
• Mississippi State is competing in its 33rd NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs have competed in each of the last 14 tournaments that have been played.
• The Bulldogs' 14 straight NCAA Tournament appearances is the second longest streak in program history behind State's 15 consecutive appearances from 1991-2005.
• State is making its seventh all-time trip to the NCAA Quarterfinals, its first appearance since 2018.
• A win against Stanford would give the Bulldogs their third all-time semifinal appearance and the first since 1998.
• Under head coach Matt Roberts, Mississippi State is 18-8 in the NCAA Tournament.
• Of the seven national seeds that have advanced to the quarterfinals, Mississippi State is the only double-digit national seed to advance. UCLA is the only unranked team in the quarterfinals.
• Texas joins Mississippi State as the only two SEC programs to advance to the quarterfinals. 11 SEC programs made the NCAA Tournament.
• Against teams ranked in the ITA rankings, the Bulldogs have a record of 13-5. Against teams ranked inside the top 5, State is 0-1. Stanford is ranked No. 5 in the ITA Rankings as of May 1.
• In neutral court matches this season, Mississippi State is 1-1.
• Since March 23, Mississippi State has won 11 of their 12 matches.
• State had a season-long eight-match winning streak, all vs. ranked SEC teams, from March 23 through April 18. It was their longest winning streak since winning 14 in a row in 2019 (3/11 – 5/4). It was also the 5th time under head coach Matt Roberts that State has won at least eight consecutive matches in a single season.
• Mississippi State has won the doubles point in 27 of 30 matches this season.
• Dating back to February 2, the No. 1 ranked doubles pair of Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez have won 16 straight doubles matches. During that stretch, only four matches went unfinished.
• Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez have earned 57 doubles victories together, tied for the most in program history with the duo of Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic.
• Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez have won 32 doubles matches this year (fall & spring), which is tied for the most in program history for a single season.
• Mississippi State went 19-1 in home matches this season. The 19 home wins were a program record, surpassing the previous high of 17 set back in 2023.
• The Bulldogs' 11 SEC wins are tied for the second-most in program history.
• State was a perfect 7-0 in SEC home matches this season. It was their first perfect SEC home season since 2019.

Mississippi State Record Book Watch
• Mississippi State's 25 wins this season are tied with the 1979 team for the most single-season victories in program history.
• Petar Jovanovic has 77 career doubles wins, tied for 8th in program history with Rene-Charles Combette (2000-03).
• Jovanovic has 54 career dual match doubles wins, ranking 5th all-time at State.
• Entering Friday, Sanchez Martinez has 59 combined singles & doubles wins between the fall and spring seasons. His 59 wins are ranked 7th most in a single season in program history. 60 wins would put him in a tie for 5th at Mississippi State with Nuno Borges (2019) & Romain Ambert (2002).
• Sanchez Martinez has won 33 total doubles matches this season, which is tied for 3rd all-time at State in a single season. A win on Friday would move him to a tie for 2nd with Joc Simmons. Jovanovic is tied for 4th with 32 doubles wins this season.
• Sanchez Martinez broke the singles-season dual match wins record (singles & doubles combined) at Mississippi State with 42 combined wins this season. He broke the record with his doubles victory over Ohio State, breaking a tie with Bulldog great Nuno Borges (2019). Jovanovic is tied for third with 38 combined wins this season.
• Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez have won 21 doubles dual matches this season, which is tied with Matt Pledger (1995) for the most all-time at Mississippi State. Their combined winning percentage of .955 (21-1) is the best all-time, just ahead of Pledger at .913 (21-2).

Mississippi State In The ITA Rankings
Team Ranking – 12th
Singles
No. 28 – Benito Sanchez Martinez
No. 67 – Petar Jovanovic
No. 111 – Niccolo Baroni
Doubles
No. 1 - Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez
No. 60 – Mario Martinez Serrano and Niccolo Baroni

Series History vs. Stanford
• Stanford leads the all-time series, 4-0. All four matches have taken place at a neutral site.
• Three of the four meetings have been in the NCAA Tournament. In 1995, they met in the NCAA Quarterfinals; in 1998, they met in the NCAA Semifinals; and in 2022, they met in the first round.
• This will be the first meeting between the two programs since 2022, when they met in Cambridge, Mass.
• Stanford has not surrendered a point to State since the first meeting back in 1994.

For the most up-to-date information on the Bulldogs, follow MSU Men's Tennis on Twitter, like them on Facebook and join them on Instagram by searching for "HailStateMT"

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Men’s Tennis Set For NCAA Quarterfinal Match Against Stanford

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Players Mentioned

Niccolo Baroni

Petar Jovanovic

Mario Martinez Serrano

Benito Sanchez Martinez

Mississippi State University Athletics