OXFORD, Miss. – The Ole Miss men’s tennis team battled through a difficult test at Galtney Tennis Center, as the Rebels were able to clinch a hard-fought 5-2 ranked win over No. 68 SMU on Sunday.
The Rebels (7-2, 0-0 SEC) found themselves in a back-and-forth battle with the No. 68 team in the country, but despite the Mustangs (6-5, 0-0 AAC) putting them on the ropes with several match point and tiebreak opportunities, the Rebels prevailed to earn the team’s first ranked win of 2023.
“Starting with doubles, it was all about saving match points today,” head coach Toby Hansson said. “That was big for our momentum going into singles to be able to get that doubles point. In singles the guys did a good job at competing well, and then Isac and Lukas pulled it through for us with two gutsy performances in their matches. Just a heck of a performance from them today.”
To start the day in doubles action, the Rebel duo of John Hallquist Lithen and Simon Junk got off to a hot start by jumping ahead 2-0 in their No. 2 doubles match. Following an injury for SMU, the duo captured a win via medical retirement to put Ole Miss in the driver’s seat.
However, a quick response from the Mustangs in No. 3 doubles made things interesting, as the match’s doubles point came down to the No. 1 doubles pairing of Nikola Slavic and Lukas Engelhardt to seal the deal against the No. 55 ranked doubles pairing in the nation.
A back-and-forth match from the beginning, Slavic and Engelhardt were able to force a 6-6 tiebreak to determine who earned the match doubles point. In the tiebreak, it was all Slavic and Engelhardt as the pair swept their way to a…
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