OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss men’s tennis earned its biggest win of the season in the team’s first SEC and outdoor match of the year, with the Rebels battling their way past in-state rival Mississippi State to take down the No. 18 ranked Bulldogs, 4-3.
Behind ranked wins in both singles and doubles, the Rebels (9-2, 1-0 SEC) were able to maneuver their way past a Mississippi State (12-2, 1-1 SEC) squad that had only lost one match prior to their meeting with the Rebels on Saturday.
The Rebels were able to get the energy going early by earning a crucial doubles point to start off the match. No. 2 doubles pairing John Hallquist Lithen and Simon Junk broke through first with their 6-4 victory, and not long after the Court 1 pairing of Nikola Slavic and Lukas Engelhardt clinched the doubles point for the Rebels with a 6-3 win over the No. 33 doubles team in the nation.
“Lukas and I came out really hot in doubles and played really well,” Slavic said. “We were able to win our service games pretty easily and break their’s, which really helped us get our win against a really really good doubles team. They’re both ranked really high, so we were just excited that we were able to clinch that doubles point to start things off.”
Slavic and Engelhardt have now notched their second ranked doubles win of the season when playing together, having also knocked off the No. 55 duo of Adam Neff and Pranav Kumar of SMU just two matches ago.
Transitioning into singles play, however, the Bulldogs found their footing and made an early splash against the Rebels with two straight-set wins in Court 4 and Court 6 singles. With these wins, the Rebels saw…
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