Men’s Tennis Topples No. 18 MSU with 4-3 Win

OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss men's tennis earned its biggest win of the season in the team's first SEC and outdoor match of the year, with the Rebels battling their way past in-state rival Mississippi State to take down the No. 18 ranked Bulldogs, 4-3.

Behind ranked wins in both singles and doubles, the Rebels (9-2, 1-0 SEC) were able to maneuver their way past a Mississippi State (12-2, 1-1 SEC) squad that had only lost one match prior to their meeting with the Rebels on Saturday.

The Rebels were able to get the energy going early by earning a crucial doubles point to start off the match. No. 2 doubles pairing John Hallquist Lithen and Simon Junk broke through first with their 6-4 victory, and not long after the Court 1 pairing of Nikola Slavic and Lukas Engelhardt clinched the doubles point for the Rebels with a 6-3 win over the No. 33 doubles team in the nation.

"Lukas and I came out really hot in doubles and played really well," Slavic said. "We were able to win our service games pretty easily and break their's, which really helped us get our win against a really really good doubles team. They're both ranked really high, so we were just excited that we were able to clinch that doubles point to start things off."

Slavic and Engelhardt have now notched their second ranked doubles win of the season when playing together, having also knocked off the No. 55 duo of Adam Neff and Pranav Kumar of SMU just two matches ago.

Transitioning into singles play, however, the Bulldogs found their footing and made an early splash against the Rebels with two straight-set wins in Court 4 and Court 6 singles. With these wins, the Rebels saw themselves fighting out of an early hole, trailing Mississippi State 2-1.

Needing a key victory to set the tone for singles, the Rebels turned to their No. 1 man in Nikola Slavic, as the Stockholm, Sweden, native navigated a difficult opening set to take set one 7-5. Feeding off of the crowd's energy, Slavic pressed the pedal to the floor to produce a 6-2 win in set two, giving the Rebels their first singles win of the day and leveling the score at 2-2 with the Bulldogs.

"When you get to play against State in your SEC opener and you get the kind of crowd that we had today, it's just so much fun," Slavic said. "To be honest, I don't remember the last time we had such a good crowd and it was great just to feed off of their energy."

In No. 5 singles, freshman Noah Schlagenhauf was going through a tough match of his own, having dropped his first set 2-6. The freshman showed the poise of an upperclassman to battle back in his match, clawing his way from 3-5 down in set two to win it 7-5 and force a crucial third set for the Rebels. Sensing an opportunity to strike, Schlagenhauf rolled up his sleeves and went to work, dominating his final set to take it 6-1 and put Ole Miss just one singles win away from upsetting the Bulldogs.

"After going down 3-5 in the second set and after losing the first set so easily, I was just putting everything I had into not losing," Schlagenhauf said. "Then once I got it to 5-5, everything flipped for me and I was putting everything I had into trying to win. It worked for the rest of that set and then I just found my energy. The crowd started to get it going, Gordon [Whitwell] played a big part in supporting me the whole match, and it's just such a nice feeling to have that here."

This left the Rebels with either John Hallquist Lithen or Simon Junk to clinch the match over their in-state rival, with both upperclassmen heading to third sets.

While Junk came up just short in his No. 3 singles matchup, Lithen wouldn't go down without a fight, forcing a 6-6 tiebreaker to decide who would come out on top. Even with a slow start, Lithen powered through to clinch the game, set and match for the Rebels, winning the tiebreaker 7-4 to take down Mississippi State.

"Heading into singles I felt pretty good and then I started off my match just unreal, that was probably the best set I've ever played," Lithen said. "It's also tough if you play that well so early because then you start wondering if they're going to change something up on you."

"Patience really was the key for me. The second set tiebreak was pretty good for me, but he was just everywhere and managed to get it. In college tennis when it's tied up it's not always about hitting winners but playing just solid tennis, and he did better at that in the second set than me, but I played it better than him in the third and that's how I won that one."

The win over No. 107 ranked Petar Jovanovic marks a team-high four ranked wins for Lithen in 2022-23, standing as his first of the spring dual season.

Up Next

The Rebels will have another day off on Sunday to prepare for a home doubleheader and non-conference finale on Monday, March 6 against Belmont (6-2, 0-0 Horizon League). Both matches will be played at Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center, weather permitting, with match one set to begin at 10 a.m. CT and match two to follow soon after the completion of the first.

Ole Miss 4, Mississippi State 3

Doubles
Nikola Slavic/Lukas Engelhardt (OM) def. No. 33 Malesevic/Hernandez (MSU) 6-3
John Hallquist Lithen/Simon Junk (OM) def. Ramskogler/Jovanovic (MSU) 6-4
Isac Strömberg/Noah Schlagenhauf (OM) vs. Martinez/Novansky (MSU) 5-5 unfinished

Order of finish: 2, 1

Singles
No. 68 Nikola Slavic (OM) def. Nemanja Malesevic (MSU) 7-5, 6-2
John Hallquist Lithen (OM) def. No. 107 Petar Jovanovic (MSU) 6-0, (1)6-7, 7-6(4)
No. 113 Carles Hernandez (MSU) def. Simon Junk (OM) 7-5, 2-6, 6-4
Ewen Lumsden (MSU) def. Lukas Engelhardt (OM) 6-1, 6-2
Noah Schlagenhauf (OM) def. Benito Sanchez Martinez (MSU) 2-6, 7-5, 6-1
Gregor Ramskogler (MSU) def. Isac Strömberg (OM) 6-4, 6-3

Order of finish: 4, 6, 1, 5, 2, 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

Noah Schlagenhauf

Nikola Slavic

Players Mentioned

Lukas Engelhardt

Simon Junk

Noah Schlagenhauf

Nikola Slavic

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