CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Despite numerous tightly contested matches, Ole Miss men’s tennis (2-1) was unable to take down their ITA Kickoff opening round opponent in Princeton University (1-2) with the Rebels falling 4-1.
Several matches for the Rebels proved to be back-and-forth contests that were decided in the latter half of each set, but ultimately it was the Tigers that would prevail to advance to the second round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend, hosted by the University of Virginia.
Leading the charge on the day for the Rebels was freshman Noah Schlagenhauf, as the Nuertingen, Germany, native grabbed the lone match win of the day for Ole Miss playing in the No. 5 singles spot.
Matched up against Princeton’s Filippos Astreinidis, Schlagenhauf was cool, calm and collected as he fought to earn a pair of hard-fought 6-4 set victories to claim the match win. He now sits at a perfect 3-0 in singles on the season, playing each of his matches at No. 5 singles for the Rebels.
Despite his No. 2 singles match going unfinished, John Hallquist Lithen also earned a set win on the day for the Rebels, claiming a 6-3 win over Will Peters to open the match.
The Rebels opened their match on the backfoot after conceding the doubles point to the Tigers following losses on the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles courts for Nikola Slavic/Lukas Engelhardt and John Hallquist Lithen/Simon Junk.
Princeton continued to roll into singles action, with Slavic dropping his No. 1 singles matchup 6-1, 6-1 to give the Tigers an early 2-0. Another win for the Tigers over Engelhardt in No. 4 singles saw them up 3-0, needing one more match win to clinch.
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