TAMPA- The University of South Florida men's tennis team returned to action on Tuesday when they welcomed Mississippi State University to the USF Varsity Tennis Courts. The Bulls fell to the Bulldogs 4-3.

Freshman Peter Frank and junior Romain Deridder started things out for USF in their No. 3 doubles match against Louis Cant and Christopher Doerr. Deridder and Frank fell to Cant and Doerr 8-3.

Senior Thomas Estrada and junior Jamal Adderley competed in the No. 1 doubles position against George Coupland and Artem Ilyushin. This proved to be an exciting doubles match with both team's refusing to give up. After falling behind 6-4, Adderley and Estrada would fight back and tie it 6-6. Coupland and Ilyushin would go on to win the next two games, though, which gave them the 8-6 victory over Estrada and Adderley. With the win the Bulldogs earned the 1-0 advantage heading into singles competition.

Sophomore's Wael Kilani and Yannick Yoshizawa competed in the No. 3 doubles position for USF against Daniel Sanchez and Antonio Lastre. This was another close doubles match for the Bulls. Yoshizawa and Kilani would go up 7-4 before letting Sanchez and Lastre fight back and it make it 7-6. Kilani and Yoshizawa would close it out in the next game and beat Lastre and Sanchez 8-6.

Sophomore Mark Oljaca picked up the Bulls first point of the day in his No. 5 singles match against Sanchez. Oljaca downed Sanchez in two sets 6-4, 6-4. That tied things up between the two teams.

Frank competed in the No. 3 singles position for USF against Ilyushin. Frank fell to Ilyushin in two sets 6-2, 6-1, giving Mississippi State a 2-1 lead over the Bulls.

Deridder took on Lastre in the No. 4 singles position with Lastre handing Deridder a 6-2, 6-4 setback. The Bulldogs now led 3-1 and USF would have to win all three remaining singles matches if they wanted to pick up the win over Mississippi State.

Freshman Juan Carlos Acuna Gerard went up against Max Gregor Smith in the No. 6 singles position. Both players gave it everything they had in this match and both refused to back down. In the first set Gerard lost to Smith 7-6, and then found himself down 6-5 in the second set before coming back and tied things up 6-6. Gerard would fall in the next game, though, and that gave Smith the 7-6 second set win. With the win, the Bulldogs earned their fourth point of the day, sealing the win for Mississippi State.

Adderley competed in the No. 2 singles position for USF against No. 101 ranked Coupland. After winning the first set 6-3, Adderley would fall in the second set 6-3 which sent the match into a third set. Adderley would top Coupland 6-3 in the third set and that gave the Bulls their second point of the day.

Kilani, ranked No. 104 in the nation, closed things out for USF in his No. 1 singles match against No. 52 Cant. This was a fierce battle between the two players and both players battled hard for the win. Kilani would pick up the first set over Cant, 6-4, but would fall in the second set 6-1. In the third set Kilani would go up 6-5 before Cant would come back and tie things up 6-6. Kilani continued to battle, though, and in the end he was able to pull out the 7-6 third set victory over Cant.

The Bulls will be back in action on Thursday, March 18 when they travel to Montgomery, Alabama to compete in the Blue-Gray Invitational. The Invitational will continue throughout the weekend.