Men's Tennis Central: #3 Tennessee vs. #22 Mississippi State

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After a week-long layoff, the third-ranked Tennessee men's tennis team returns to action with a Friday afternoon SEC showdown with No. 22 Mississippi State. First serve from Barksdale Stadium is slated for 1 p.m. ET.

Live streaming of Friday's match will be provided by Playsight and can be found here. Live stats will be through UTsports.com and can be found here.

All matches at Barksdale Stadium will be played in front of guests of participating staff and student-athletes only. All matches played inside the Goodfriend Tennis Center will be played without fans.

LAST TIME OUT
Tennessee took down 12th-ranked Georgia, 4-2, in Athens last Friday afternoon. The win was just the fifth win for the Orange & White at Georgia since 1990.

After winning the doubles point, victories on court five from graduate student Luca Wiedenmann and at No. 4 from junior Martim Prata put the Vols up, 3-2, on the cusp of match point.

Down 2-6, 4-4 on court two, five-time reigning SEC Freshman of the Week Johannus Monday reeled off wins in eight consecutive games over No. 18 Philip Henning, to earn a three-set, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory to clinch match point for UT.

The win was Monday's fifth over a ranked opponent on the young dual season.

SCOUTING MISSISSIPPI STATE
Friday's match in Knoxville will be the Bulldogs SEC opener after the postponement of their would-be match with Arkansas last Friday.

Mississippi State comes in with a 9-1 record, with the lone loss coming against then-third-ranked TCU, 4-1.

Tennessee currently holds a 35-25 series edge over Mississippi State dating to 1937. Last time the programs met, the Vols took down MSU, 6-1 in Knoxville. The win was the first for UT over Mississippi State since 2014.

In last year's match, UT claimed the doubles point quickly, before grabbing three straight-set victories from Prata, Wiedenmann and senior Andrew Rogers on courts two, three and four.

Mississippi State currently features two top-125 singles players (No. 36 Giovanni Oradini & No. 87 Florian Broska) and two top-60 doubles pairs (No. 28 Broska and Nicolas Ocana & No. 47 Alberto Colas and Gregor Ramskogler).

WEDNESDAYS FEEL LIKE MONDAYS
Freshman Johannus Monday has been named the SEC's Freshman of the Week for five consecutive Wednesday afternoons. He has won all five Freshman of the Week honors thus far and the Vols have now claimed 8-of-11 SEC Weekly Awards during the dual season.

LUCA'S STREAK
Luca Wiedenmann enters Friday's match riding a 20-match win streak dating to Oct. 3, with 18 of those victories occurring in straight-set fashion.

Wiedenmann is also just three victories away from tying Mikelis Libietis for ninth on the programs all-time singles wins list.

UP NEXT
UT will make a quick turnaround to welcome Ole Miss to Knoxville for the second SEC match of the weekend on Sunday afternoon. First serve is slated for 1 p.m. ET from Barksdale Stadium.

Men's Tennis Central: #3 Tennessee vs. #22 Mississippi State

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Players Mentioned

Johannus Monday

Martim Prata

Andrew Rogers

Luca Wiedenmann

University of Tennessee Athletics