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STARKVILLE, Miss. -- The No. 69-ranked Samford University men's tennis team will square off against its third nationally-ranked opponent in four matches this season Sunday as the Bulldogs are slated to battle the 10^th-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs in a key nonconference contest to be held noon (CST) at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre.
 
Earlier this season, Samford (1-2) was invited to play at the prestigious ITA Kick-Off Weekend, but came up short in a pair of hard-fought matches against No. 56 Indiana and No. 46 Elon.
 
On Jan. 25, the Bulldogs dropped a 4-2 decision against Southern Conference-rival and No. 46-ranked Elon Phoenix on the final day of the 2014 ITA Kick-Off Weekend hosted by the University of Virginia at the Boyd Tinsley Courts at the Boar's Head Sports Club.
 
In the rematch of the 2013 SoCon Tournament championship, Elon swept the all-important doubles competition to take an early 1-0 lead.
 
Samford then bounced back with a pair of victories from Fares Kilani and Trey Carter in singles play, but Elon held tough at the bottom of its lineup and also received a come-from-behind triumph from 25^th-ranked Cameron Silverman on court No. 1 to clinch the 4-2 victory, 4-6, 6-1, 6-5.
 
In the highly-anticipated No. 1 singles matchup, the Bulldogs' Elliot Barnwell nearly toppled his second-consecutive nationally-ranked opponent of the weekend. He jumped out to a 6-4 triumph in the first set against Silverman before the Phoenix's ace bounced back to take the next two frames.
 
On Friday, Barnwell knocked off Indiana's 80^th-ranked Sven Lalic in straight sets, 6-5, 6-3. The victory proved to be his biggest of the young 2013-14 campaign.
 
Kilani, Samford's talented native of Tunis, Tunisia, cruised past Elon's Stefan Fortmann, 6-2, 6-2, on court No. 2 to pick up the Bulldogs' first point of the match, while Carter tallied a straight-set victory over the Phoenix's Brian Kowalski, 6-2, 6-4, in the No. 4 singles contest.
 
Mississippi State (6-0) enters Sunday's matchup as one of the top-10 teams in the nation. Already this season, the Bulldogs have defeated Jackson State, 7-0, Alabama State, 7-0, No. 26 Harvard, 4-3, No. 21 Memphis, 4-2, No. 53 Texas Tech, 4-3, and Rice, 5-2.
 
In its victory at Rice on Feb. 1, Mississippi State got off to a hot start, taking the doubles point for the first time in four matches. On court No. 2, the freshman pair of Florian Lakat and Egbert Weverink made quick work of Rice's Srikar Alla and Leif Berber, earning a 6-3 victory.
 
MSU's tandem of Rishab Agarwal and Zach White clinched doubles play for the Bulldogs, defeating the Owl team of Adam Gustafsson and Zach Yablon 6-3 on court three, moving to 3-0 on the season.
 
In singles, Mississippi State earned three straight-set victories early to clinch the win against the Owls. Freshman Robin Haden struck first for State on court No. 6, earning an impressive 6-1, 6-3 victory against Rice's Henrik Munch in only his third match of the season. Following suit on court three was Angus, who defeated Rice's Gustafsson 6-4, 6-3 to put MSU up 3-0 in the match.
 
The clincher came on court No. 5, as MSU freshman Agarwal used back-to-back tiebreakers to defeat the Owls' Gustavo Gonzalez 6-5(2), 6-5(4), giving the Bulldogs the overall match. The win was Agarwal's second match-clinching victory of the year.
 
Last season, Samford and Mississippi State also met in nonconference play as 13^th-ranked MSU earned a 7-0 victory over the Bulldogs on Feb. 23, 2013.
 
Following Sunday's showdown against No. 10-ranked Mississippi State, the Samford University men's tennis team will next be in action Friday at 2 p.m. (CST) as the Bulldogs begin a four-game homestand against the UTSA Roadrunners to be held at the Samford Tennis Center.