No. 6 Mississippi State Set For Starkville Super Regional vs. No. 12 Georgia

Saturday, May 9

Starkville

12 p.m.

Mississippi State

Georgia

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No. 6 Mississippi State Set For Starkville Super Regional vs. No. 12 Georgia

May 08, 2026 | Men's Tennis

By: Tad Couch, Mississippi State Athletic Communications Student Intern

Saturday, May 9 at 12 p.m. CT

Starkville, Miss. | A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre

Match 30

No. 6 Mississippi State (5) vs No. 12 Georgia (12)

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STARKVILLE – The Super Regional of the NCAA Tournament returns to Starkville for one of the biggest matches ever played at A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre as Mississippi State hosts Georgia with a trip to the NCAA Championship site at stake.

Only 16 teams remain in the tournament field, and Saturday's matchup places two SEC programs that spent the entire spring navigating one of the nation's most demanding conferences. After Mississippi State edged Georgia 4-2 at home, the Dawgs meet again, this time with the season on the line.

Mississippi State enters the weekend after a dominant regional performance in Starkville. The Bulldogs swept Tennessee Tech in the opening round before delivering another 4-0 victory over to advance. State did not surrender a single team point across the opening two rounds of NCAA play, continuing a season-long trend of strong performances at home.

Georgia arrives after winning its regional in Athens, capped by a 4-0 win over North Carolina State in the regional final.

For Mississippi State, the opportunity is significant. The Bulldogs are attempting to advance to the NCAA Championship site from home in front of what is expected to be one of the largest crowds of the season in Starkville. Under head coach Matt Roberts, the program has become a consistent NCAA Tournament presence and has regularly positioned itself among the nation's top teams during the latter stages of the season.

The Bulldogs' success this year has been built through depth across the lineup and consistency against elite competition. Throughout SEC play, Mississippi State faced a schedule filled with nationally ranked opponents and emerged as one of the conference's top teams, eventually advancing to the SEC Tournament championship match.

Georgia enters with comparable postseason experience and one of the sport's most established histories. The Bulldogs remain one of college tennis' most accomplished programs historically and once again positioned themselves among the nation's remaining contenders through strong conference play and a convincing regional showing.

Mississippi State Notes
• Mississippi State swept Tennessee Tech and Wisconsin in the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament
• Benito Sanchez Martinez is the only player in the nation to be raked in the top nine in both singles and doubles.
• Petar Jovanovic set the all-time program wins record with a singles and doubles victory versus Tennessee.
• Head Coach Matt Roberts holds the record for most wins in program history with 236 wins at the helm.
• Sanchez Martinez has played 46 consecutive singles matches on court one.
• All of Mississippi States's conference victories have been over ranked opponents
• Mississippi State opened the 2026 season with four consecutive road wins before returning home to beat Santa Clara and Auburn at the ITA Kickoff Weekend to secure a birth in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
• The Bulldogs are above .500 at every singles position.
• Five Bulldogs are ranked in the ITA singles rankings, led by Sanchez Martinez at No. 9, the second highest-ranked player in the SEC.
• Seniors Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez return as ITA Doubles All-Americans, while Jovanovic also earned ITA Singles All-American honors after reaching the NCAA Individual Championships quarterfinals.
• Mississippi State posted 25 wins in 2025, tying the 1979 team for the most single-season victories in program history.
• In 2025, Benito Sanchez Martinez set single-season program records for dual-match wins in both singles and doubles.
• Jovanovic and Sanchez Martinez are the winningest doubles pair in program history, surpassing Nuno Borges and Strahinja Rakic.
• The Bulldogs return eight letterwinners from last season's NCAA quarterfinal squad.
• Mississippi State is in its 102nd season as a program, with an all-time record of 1,131-649-8.

Mississippi State Record Book Watch
• Jovanovic has 95 career doubles wins, making him second-most all-time. He sits two wins away from Laurent Miquelard's (1992-95) total of 97.
• Jovanovic now has 65 career dual match doubles wins, breaking Gregor Ramskogler's total of 64 for the for the most all-time.
• Jovanovic is now 4^th all-time in career singles wins with 107.
• Benito Sanchez Martinez is 2^nd all-time in career dual singles wins, seven behind Nuno Borges' tally of 81.

Mississippi State in the ITA Rankings
Team Ranking – 6th

Singles
No. 9 – Benito Sanchez Martinez
No. 13 – Petar Jovanovic
No. 65 – Mario Martinez Serrano
No. 93 – Niccolo Baroni
No. 120 – Bryan Hernandez Cortes

Doubles
No. 9 - Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez
No. 19 - Michal Novansky and Benito Sanchez Martinez

Series History vs. Georgia
• State faced Georgia at home earlier this season and won 4-2.
• Mississippi State is 12-62 all-time versus Georgia
• Georgia holds the advantage in Starkville, 22-5
• Head Coach, Matt Roberts won his first matchup against Georgia in 2015, he has gone on to pick up four more victories against the Bulldogs.

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