OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss men’s tennis closed out its non-conference slate of matches with a bang on Monday, as the Rebels earned a pair of hard-fought victories over the Belmont Bruins to increase the team’s win streak to eight heading into SEC play.
Despite the Rebels (11-2, 1-0 SEC) dropping the doubles point in both of the day’s matches, the team was able to fend off a scrappy Belmont (6-5, 0-0 Horizon) side to secure 6-1 and 4-2 victories on the day.
The Rebels were put to the test early by the Bruins, with all three doubles matches of the opening match going for over 40 minutes. Despite tightly contested matches for Ole Miss, Belmont would start the day off with the doubles point after taking wins on Court 1 and Court 3.
Heading into singles, the team got off to a slow start with three Rebels dropping their first sets. Nikola Slavic, on the other hand, showed he was in complete control in No. 1 singles.
Coming off of a gritty two-set victory in the team’s match against Mississippi State on Saturday, Slavic carried his momentum into match one with the Bruins by only dropping one game to finish off his opponent 6-0, 6-1 and get the Rebels on the board. Note???
Even with a quick win from Slavic, the Rebels still needed to grind out some hard-fought wins across the remaining five courts to secure a match one victory, as the rest of the matches for singles play would progress to third sets.
Riding the high of a 6-3 second set win, John Hallquist Lithen would be the first domino to fall with Lithen sweeping through his final set 6-0 to earn a crucial match win that gave the Rebels a 2-1 lead. The win improved…
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