Mississippi State announced on Apr. 27 that it will host the first and second rounds of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre, marking the fourth consecutive season the Bulldogs have served as a tournament site.
The announcement highlights Mississippi State’s continued prominence in collegiate tennis, as this is also the eighth time in program history that Starkville has been selected to host early-round NCAA action. The Bulldogs earned the fifth overall seed and are set to face Tennessee Tech, seeded fourth in their regional, on Friday at 1 p.m.
Wisconsin, holding the No. 2 seed in the Starkville Regional, will play against No. 3 seed Samford earlier that day at 10 a.m. The winners of these matches will compete Saturday at 1 p.m., with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.
Mississippi State enters postseason play with notable achievements this year: their tally of 22 wins ties for fifth-most in school history and their eleven Southeastern Conference victories match their second-highest total ever. This season marks Mississippi State’s fifteenth straight appearance in the NCAA Team Championship—a streak tied for longest in program history—and its thirty-fourth overall showing. In recent years, Mississippi State has advanced to at least the Round of 16 three seasons running and reached last year’s quarterfinals for only its second time since 2018.
Individual honors were also announced: Benito Sanchez Martinez was named SEC Player of the Year for 2026 and earned First Team All-SEC honors alongside Petar Jovanovic; Mario Martinez Serrano and Niccolo Baroni were named to All-SEC Second Team.
Looking ahead, Mississippi State aims to build on past successes—including two semifinal appearances (1994, 1998), seven quarterfinal berths, and eighteen Round of 16 finishes—as they begin another postseason run.
