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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
LSU
No. 14 Rebel Tennis Defeats LSU 5-2
4/1/2012 | Men's Tennis
April 1, 2012
OXFORD, Miss. - If the No. 14 nationally ranked Ole Miss men's tennis team wanted any chance at the SEC Western Division title or the overall title, then they knew taking care of business at home this weekend was a must. Mission accomplished, as the Rebels defeated 27th-ranked LSU 5-2 Sunday at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center to cap a 2-0 weekend.
"It's always good to get a win against LSU, especially when they have a good team," head coach Billy Chadwick said. "We had a great team effort from top to bottom. It was good to get the doubles point. We played really well in the first sets with the exception of Lutjen. But, he did a good job of coming back. All-in-all, great weekend for the Rebs!"
After a solid 6-1 win on Friday against Arkansas, the Rebels came into Sunday's match vs. LSU wanting to get off to a good start early, and they did by sweeping the doubles. The twins, Marcel Thiemann and Chris Thiemann won 8-2 at No. 2 and then William Kallberg and Johan Backstrom clinched the point 8-5 at No. 3.
In fact, Kallberg and Backstrom were instrumental in the win as a whole, picking up two wins singles as well.
Senior Marcel Thiemann had an outstanding weekend for the Rebels going 3-0 in singles and doubles to lead the team. He downed LSU's Neal Skupski 6-1, 6-0 at No. 2 singles to put Ole Miss up 2-0 and improve to 7-1 in the SEC.
"Marcel is one of the better players in the conference," and last year Marcel barely beat him. For him to beat Skupski the way he did today, is great a day for Marcel."
Kallberg, playing in front of his parents who made the trip from Sweden, made it 3-0 defeating Tiger James Turbervill 6-4, 6-1 at No. 4. Backstrom clinched it with a 6-2, 6-3 win against Stefan Szacinski on court five.
"William is coming to play every time. His parents were here, and it was great that they got to see him come away with two victories in singles and doubles. That was a big match for Backy. He has had a lot of close matches that didn't go his way. That has a tendency to play on your psyche. That was a huge victory for the team, and I think you're going to see Backy play great ball from this point on."
Adrian Forberg Skogeng added the final point winning a third-set supertiebreaker against LSU's Tom Knights.
The Rebels are on the road next weekend at Vanderbilt and SEC-leading Kentucky.
Follow the Rebels on twitter at @OleMissMTennis and on facebook at www.facebook.com/OleMissMTennis.
