Chris Hooshyar is still undefeated in his debut season as Mississippi State women’s tennis head coach after the Bulldogs beat Alabama-Birmingham 4-3 and Jackson State 6-1 on Saturday and then edged Belmont 4-3 on Sunday.

MSU took the doubles points against the Blazers, with the top pairing of Alexandra Mikhailuk and Maria Rizzolo and the No. 3 team of Dharani Niroshan and Alessia Tagliente each winning 6-3. Jayna Clemens gave the Bulldogs the first singles point with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 5, but UAB won the next two completed matches to even the score.

Mikhailuk put the Bulldogs back in front with a three-set victory at No. 3, and after Taglente fell in a third-set tiebreak at No. 6, Chloé Cirotte took her match at No. 2 in three sets to clinch the victory.

“Obviously I was stressed a little bit, but I’ve been working on myself and my routine,” Cirotte told MSU athletic communications. “After every point, I’d hear (the fans) screaming for me and pushing me. But I’m still looking at what I have to do and didn’t get too excited until I’d win a point. I just reset after every point and focused on what I had to do.”

Against the Tigers later Saturday, Niroshan and Tagliente — now at No. 2 doubles — and Clemens and Rizzolo at No. 3 each won their matches 6-4 to give the Bulldogs the first point. Mikhailuk won her match at No. 2 singles when her opponent retired with Mikhailuk up a set, and Clemens dominated 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5. Niroshan also dropped just four games in her match to seal the win.

MSU fell behind against the Bruins on Sunday as the visitors won the doubles point despite a 6-2 victory at No. 3 from Niroshan and Tagliente. Clemens again cruised in her singles match, 6-2, 6-1, and after Athina Pitta lost in straight sets at No. 4, Mikhailuk evened the overall score at No. 3 with a 6-4, 7-6(4) win. Tagliente came back from a set down to win at No. 5, but a loss by Cirotte at No. 2 meant the match would come down to the final court.

Rizzolo, who had dropped the first set, won her second set 6-1, then outlasted her opponent in a third-set tiebreak to cap the perfect weekend. The Bulldogs (6-0) will now hit the road for the first time this season, heading to Memphis next Sunday.

“It felt great,” Rizzolo said. “I’ve never been in that situation before, so I was shaking a little. But after I won and having all my teammates come running toward me and hugging me was the best feeling.”

MSU men fall to Blue Raiders

The No. 22 Bulldogs lost their third straight match after starting the season with four consecutive wins, falling 4-3 at Middle Tennessee in a rematch of last year’s NCAA Tournament second round, which MSU won at home.

The Blue Raiders took the doubles point as the Bulldogs’ No. 2 team of Carles Hernandez and Dusan Milanovic and the No. 3 pairing of Marshall Landry and Nemanja Malesevic each lost 6-3. Petar Jovanovic, the No. 13 ranked singles player in the country, fell in straight sets to Middle Tennessee’s No. 25 Leo Raquin, and Hernandez also lost in two sets to put the Bulldogs in a 3-0 hole.

Milanovic gave MSU its first point with a 6-4, 6-4 victory at No. 4 singles, but Benito Sanchez Martinez fell in straight sets at No. 5 to wrap it up for the Blue Raiders. Radomir Tomic and Malesevic each won in three sets for the Bulldogs as the remaining matches were played out.

MSU (4-3) has a busy week ahead, traveling to Memphis on Wednesday and then returning home to take on North Florida on Friday and Virginia Commonwealth on Sunday. The Bulldogs fell to VCU 4-3 as part of the ITA Kickoff Weekend on Jan. 27.