OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss men’s tennis continued their hot streak of five straight match wins on Thursday, taking down St. John’s by a 5-2 scoreline to earn the team’s eighth win of the season.
A key doubles point win, followed by swift match victories in singles play helped the Rebels (8-2, 0-0 SEC) earn a key victory over the Red Storm (9-3, 0-0 Big East) as the team approaches the end of its non-conference schedule.
“We took care of business today,” head coach Toby Hansson said. “Doubles got interesting there, but doubles is always decided by the smallest of margins in this format. Then in singles, I thought we did a good job at closing the door early on them and getting to the four points that we needed to clinch.”
Starting things off with doubles, the Rebels found themselves in three tightly knit matches across all three courts to determine the match’s doubles point. Following a Red Storm win in Court 2 doubles, the Rebels found themselves in an early hole and needing two doubles victories in order to gain the advantage on St. John’s.
Already riding a three-match win streak in doubles play into their tie with St. John’s, the No. 1 doubles pairing of Nikola Slavic and Lukas Engelhardt was up for the moment as they were able to snag a 6-4 win to put the team one away from the doubles point.
The team then turned to the tandem of Isac Strömberg and Walker Stearns to get the win, and despite having only played one match together prior to their match the duo was up for the challenge. Battling through a rollercoaster of a match, it was ultimately Stearns that dealt the winning blow, clinching a 6-4 win for…
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