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Strong Day in Singles Leads Men’s Tennis Past LSU, 6-1
4/2/2023 | Men's Tennis
Rebels Go 5-for-6 in Singles, Claim Hard-Fought Doubles Point Against the Tigers
OXFORD, Miss. – No. 32 Ole Miss men's tennis took advantage of a beautiful day at Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center on Sunday, chalking up their fourth SEC win of the season with a 6-1 victory over No. 44 LSU.
The Rebels (14-6, 4-4 SEC) fought their way to a difficult doubles point to open their match against the Tigers (11-8, 3-7 SEC), which led to the Rebels dominating singles play with wins on five out of six courts.
The Rebels set the tone early in a tightly contested doubles point, with Nikola Slavic and Noah Schlagenhauf grinding out a hard-fought 6-4 win in Court 3 doubles. The win not only marked the second win for the senior-freshman duo this season, but also put the Rebels one win away from claiming the doubles point.
Not long after, however, the Tigers responded back with a tiebreaker win in No. 2 doubles. Despite the very best efforts of Lukas Engelhardt and Isac Strömberg, who forced a 6-6 tiebreak, the LSU duo of Dong/Hotard leveled up doubles with a 7-5 tiebreaker win, putting the fate of the doubles point on Court 1.
On Court 1, fans got to witness a rematch of the 2022 ITA South Regional Doubles Championship match as John Hallquist Lithen and Simon Junk took on No. 48 ranked Stefan Latinovic and Nick Watson of LSU. In the first meet-up between these two pairings in the fall, the LSU duo got the edge over Ole Miss. This time, Junk and Lithen had other plans.
Fighting through a back-and-forth match, Court 1 would ultimately find itself in yet another 6-6 tiebreak, this time to decide the doubles point. Junk and Lithen rolled up their sleeves and battled their way to a 7-5 win in their tiebreaker, earning a redemptive 7-6(5) victory to put the Rebels up 1-0 to start things off.
"That doubles point was super tough," Lithen said. "Simon and I knew it was going to be a tough match for us against those guys since we had lost to them via super tiebreak in Regional Finals. We had a clear game plan though, and while I'm not going to say we executed it perfectly we did get the job done."
Heading into singles action, the Rebels rode the energy brought from their doubles victory by taking first-set wins in five out of six matches. Freshman Noah Schlagenhauf would deal the first blow to LSU in singles, winning No. 5 singles 6-4, 6-1 to bolster the Rebel lead.
In a grueling match of his own playing against one of his doubles foes from earlier, John Hallquist Lithen grinded out a huge 6-4, 6-4 win for the Rebels on Court 2, putting the team just one singles win away from clinching the match. Lithen now officially sits at a team-leading 20 singles wins in 2022-23, a new personal best mark for the Gothenburg, Sweden, native in a single season.
"We were able to carry some momentum into singles, which won us a lot of our first sets," Lithen said. "The momentum really carried through for us and we were all pushing each other. Niko and I had pretty good chemistry here on Courts 1 and 2, and we managed to get it done. It was a great day for the Rebs."
The Tigers responded back with a win in No. 3 singles, moving the score to 3-1. The Rebels would slam the door shut shortly after, as freshman Isac Strömberg claimed a match-clinching 6-4, 6-2 win on Court 6.
With the match already in hand, the senior tandem of Lukas Engelhardt and Nikola Slavic added icing to the proverbial cake for the Rebels, bringing in two more singles victories to cap off the 6-1 win for Ole Miss.
Engelhardt claimed a 6-4, 7-5 win on Court 2, marking a team-best seventh consecutive singles win. Slavic, on the other hand, took down No. 58 Ronald Hohmann 6-3, (1)6-7, 1-0 (10-6) in a third-set super tiebreak finish to earn his fifth ranked singles win of the season in No. 1 singles.
"Against a team like LSU it's not often that you can win five out of six first sets," Slavic said. "That really set us up for success today. In terms of my match, I really felt like I played a great first set and third-set breaker. I was able to make a lot of balls and get the win."
"Overall just a great crowd that gave us a lot of energy today. Just a great team effort from the guys."
Up Next
The Rebels will now head into their final week of home tennis here in Oxford, hosting Alabama (9-13, 1-8 SEC) on April 7 at 3 p.m. CT before turning around and playing Texas A&M (13-8, 5-3 SEC) on April 9 at 1 p.m. CT. Sunday's match against the Aggies will serve as the Rebels' Senior Day.
Ole Miss 6, LSU 1
Doubles
John Hallquist Lithen/Simon Junk (OM) def. No. 48 Latinovic/Watson (LSU) 7-6(5)
Dong/Hotard (LSU) def. Lukas Engelhardt/Isac Strömberg (OM) 7-6(5)
Nikola Slavic/Noah Schlagenhauf (OM) def. Penzlin/Stoupe (LSU) 6-4
Order of finish: 3, 2, 1
Singles
No. 66 Nikola Slavic (OM) def. No. 58 Ronald Hohmann (LSU) 6-3, (1)6-7, 1-0(10-6)
John Hallquist Lithen (OM) def. Stefan Latinovic (LSU) 6-4, 6-4
No. 92 Chen Dong (LSU) def. Simon Junk (OM) 6-4, 6-4
Lukas Engelhardt (OM) def. Welsh Hotard (LSU) 6-4, 7-5
Noah Schlagenhauf (OM) def. Julian Penzlin (LSU) 6-4, 6-1
Isac Strömberg (OM) def. George Stoupe (LSU) 6-4, 6-2
Order of finish: 5, 2, 3, 6, 4, 1
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.
Players Mentioned
