The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
Texas A&M
No. 7 A&M Holds off No. 22 Rebels
3/13/2016 | Men's Tennis
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OXFORD, Miss. - In a battle between two top 25 teams, No. 7 Texas A&M won three of the five three-setters played Sunday to hold off the No. 22 Ole Miss men's tennis team 4-1 at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center.
The Rebels gained a huge momentum boost when they saved a match point at No. 3 doubles and went on to win a tiebreaker for the early 1-0 lead. Stefan Lindmark and Gustav Hansson trailed 3-5 and faced match point, but they rallied to get to a tiebreaker and won it 7-5 to clinch the first point. Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton won their match at No. 2 doubles, 6-4.
In the only match that lasted two sets, A&M tied the match with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 5 singles from Jackson Withrow over Hamilton.
The remaining five matches all went three sets, two of them featuring Rebel freshmen Fallert and Filip Kraljevic. After taking the first set against Harrison Adams on court four, Fallert lost the next two 6-2, 6-2 as the Aggies went up 2-1. Fallert led 2-0, but Adams won two straight games and then broke again at 3-2 to go up 4-2.
At No. 2 singles, Hansson won a huge second set against 34th-ranked Shane Vinsant, but the Aggie raced out to a quick lead in the third to close out a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win and give A&M a 3-1 lead.
Down on court three, Kraljevic won the first set against Jorde Arconada, but Arconada rallied to win a tight second set 6-4. He gained an early break in the third and served for it at 5-3. Arconada had a match point, but Kraljevic won the deciding point for the break. Serving at 4-5, Kraljevic held to keep the Rebels' hopes of an upset alive. Arconada held his serve for 6-5 and then broke Kraljevic to clinch the win.
The remaining matches were suspended with Lindmark and 14th-ranked Arthur Rinderknech tied 1-1 in the first set and Ricardo Jorge and Max Lunkin tied 4-4 in the third set.
Notables…
• Ole Miss dropped to 7-4 overall, 2-2 in the SEC.
• Grey Hamilton had his four-match win streak snapped.
• The Rebels have now won the doubles point in eight of their 11 matches.
• The Rebels will play their next three matches on the road at Auburn, Florida and Arkansas.
Quoting Head Coach Toby Hansson…
"Today we played a good match against a very good team. They were just a little better than we were. It's that simple."
On momentum shifts…
"We saved a match point at three doubles. It was an amazing turnaround. We felt good about that and we were playing pretty well in singles. We had five three-setters. Stefan played an unbelievable tiebreaker to force a third set. That guy beat him in the fall in straight sets. As a whole, the team played well, we just needed one match to turn and we would have been right there."
On Fabi's and Gus' third sets…
"We need more matches like this. We can learn from this match and understand that you have to play every point and start over [in the third set] and focus on what's right in front of you. We have to keep on playing and competing and not let the negatives take over. If we continue doing what we are doing though, we are going to win a lot of tennis matches."
On next three matches on the road…
"We have three matches coming up on the road at Auburn, Florida and Arkansas. We've had some good matches against all three teams, and it's not going to be much different than it was today."
For more information on Ole Miss Men's Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter @OleMissMTennis, on Facebook at OleMissMTennis and on Instagram at OleMissMTennis, follow Coach Hansson on Twitter at @TennisToby.
Players Mentioned
