Men’s Tennis Collects Pair of Sweeps Over Alabama State

OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss men's tennis cruised through a busy doubleheader day against Alabama State, as the Rebels were able to grab two 4-0 wins over the Hornets to sweep through their competition on Friday.

The Rebels (6-2, 0-0 SEC) put together a well-rounded performance throughout the day to sweep their way past the Hornets (3-9, 2-0 SWAC), with Ole Miss finding singles wins from five different players to navigate their way to a now three-match win streak.

The Rebels started things off on Friday by grabbing a quick doubles point to open match one, with the pairings of Nikola Slavic/Lukas Engelhardt (6-3) and Isac Strömberg/Walker Stearns (7-6) earning a pair of victories in No. 1 and No. 3 doubles.

Momentum for the Rebels carried right into singles play with Nikola Slavic taking a commanding 6-2, 6-3 victory on Court 1 singles. Rebel freshman Isac Strömberg followed this up with a straight-set win of his own in the No. 5 position, taking down his opponent 6-1, 6-4. This marked Strömberg's first career match playing in No. 5 singles for Ole Miss.

"We ended up having to play inside today, but I think we handled moving from outdoors to indoors well overall," Strömberg said. "I worked a lot on my serve these past two weeks with Toby and Kalle, and today it really paid off. I think I served really well today and I got a lot of free points from it, so I'm happy with that."

Lukas Engelhardt would ultimately clinch match one for the Rebels, as the Augsburg, Germany, native swept his sets by scores of 6-2 and 6-3 to earn the fourth and final match point for the team. Having clinched the match 4-0, the remaining three singles matches went unfinished for match one.

In match two against the Hornets the Rebels kept the same energy as the first when starting off doubles play, grabbing another pair of wins on Court 1 and Court 2 to clinch the match's doubles point once again.

The pairing Slavic and Engelhardt would strike first, grabbing a quick 6-1 win in the No. 1 slot before John Hallquist Lithen and Simon Junk rounded out doubles for the day with a 6-3 victory in the No. 2 position.

With the win Junk now officially moves into a tie with Nik Scholtz for 18th all-time in program history in career doubles wins, compiling 58 over his five-year career in Oxford,

Moving to singles play, it was John Hallquist Lithen that struck first for the Rebel squad this go around, as Lithen grabbed a pair of speedy 6-1 set victories to cruise his way to earning a team-leading 12 singles wins on the 2022-23 season.

Not far behind Lithen was freshman Isac Strömberg, as the talented rookie from Stockholm, Sweden, quickly proved himself worthy of playing in the No. 5 singles spot, taking down his opponent 6-0, 6-2. This left the Rebels needing just one final win to clinch their second match victory of the day against the Hornets.

To close out the day the Rebels turned to the veteran of the team, senior Simon Junk, to put a bow on what was a successful day at Galtney Tennis Center. Powered by his strong performance in singles, Junk cleaned up on Court 3 singles by battling his way to a 6-4, 6-0 match-clinching win for the Ole Miss Rebels.

"It was good for us to get these matches in today," Junk said. "We hadn't played in two weeks and everything was a little rusty in the beginning, which showed in doubles. From that we came out better in singles and then got even better in the second match. It was a good opportunity for us to prepare for SMU today, and I'm looking forward to that one on Sunday."

Once again, due to the 4-0 Rebel clinch the remaining three singles matches went unfinished to close out the lineup.

Up Next

The Rebels return to action right away on Sunday, February 26 for a non conference clash with the Southern Methodist Mustangs (6-4). The match between Ole Miss and SMU is set for 12 p.m. CT, and weather permitting will be played at the Palmer/Salloum Outdoor Tennis Center.

Match 1: Ole Miss 4, Alabama State 0

Doubles
Nikola Slavic/Lukas Engelhardt (OM) def. Du Preez/Bajracharya (ASU) 6-3
John Hallquist Lithen/Simon Junk (OM) vs. Rodriguez/Grandinot (ASU) 6-6 unfinished
Isac Strömberg/Walker Stearns (OM) def. Johnson/Bertone (ASU) 7-6(4)

Order of finish: 1, 3

Singles
Nikola Slavic (OM) def. Ruan Du Preez (ASU) 6-2, 6-3
John Hallquist Lithen (OM) vs. David Grandinot (ASU) 6-3, 5-5 unfinished
Simon Junk (OM) vs. Sam Bajracharya (ASU) 7-5, 2-5 unfinished
Lukas Engelhardt (OM) def. Matis Amier (ASU) 6-2, 6-3
Isac Strömberg (OM) def. Kristofer Johnson (ASU) 6-1, 6-4
Walker Stearns (OM) vs. Alexandre Verlaguet (ASU) 6-1, 4-5 unfinished

Order of finish: 1, 5, 4

Match 2: Ole Miss 4, Alabama State 0

Doubles
Nikola Slavic/Lukas Engelhardt (OM) def. Rodriguez/Grandinot (ASU) 6-1
John Hallquist Lithen/Simon Junk (OM) def. Du Preez/Bajracharya (ASU) 6-3
Isac Strömberg/Walker Stearns (OM) vs. Amier/Verlaguet (ASU) 5-3 unfinished

Order of finish: 1, 2

Singles
Nikola Slavic (OM) vs. David Grandinot (ASU) 7-6, 1-1 unfinished
John Hallquist Lithen (OM) def. Ruan Du Preez (ASU) 6-1, 6-1
Simon Junk (OM) def. Sam Bajracharya (ASU) 6-4, 6-0
Lukas Engelhardt (OM) vs. Alexandre Verlaguet (ASU) 6-3, 3-4 unfinished
Isac Strömberg (OM) def. Juan Rodriguez (ASU) 6-0, 6-2
Gordon Whitwell (OM) vs. Louca Bertone (ASU) 6-2, 3-1 unfinished

Order of finish: 2, 5, 3

For more information on Ole Miss Men's Tennis, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissMTennis, on Facebook at OleMissMTennis and on Instagram at OleMissMTennis, follow Coach Hansson on Twitter at @TennisToby.

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Lukas Engelhardt

Simon Junk

Nikola Slavic

Walker Stearns

Gordon Whitwell

Players Mentioned

Lukas Engelhardt

Simon Junk

Nikola Slavic

Walker Stearns

Gordon Whitwell

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