BATON ROUGE—The No. 40 LSU men’s tennis team (12-5 overall, 3-3 SEC) defeated No. 32 Tulsa, 4-2, Thursday afternoon at the LSU Tennis Complex.
The three-hour, 59-minute match was competitive from the first minute to the last, starting off with doubles. Kent Hunter and Gabriel Diaz Freire started the contest off with a win on court two, 6-4. On court one, Ronald Hohmann and Vlad Lobak were tied up, 5-5, but the Hurricane duo rattled off two straight games and defeated Hohmann/Lobak, 7-5. Nick Watson and Boris Kozlov found themselves in a tied at 6-6 against Adham Gaber and Callum Gale and headed to a tiebreak. The Tulsa duo took the tiebreak, ending the match at 7-6(7), and the doubles point.
Throughout LSU’s five-match win streak, they have dropped the doubles point in four out of five matches, so needing four of the six singles courts was not unfamiliar territory. Kent Hunter improved to 14-1 on the dual season as he got LSU on the board with a 6-1, 7-5 victory on court three. Diaz Freire followed up by giving LSU the lead on court two with a 6-4, 6-4 victory on court four. The remaining four matches would head to a third set, and No. 23 Ronald Hohmann put LSU up 3-1 after defeating No. 106 Kody Pearson, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Hohmann picked up his fourth ranked victory of the season during a week where he achieved his career-high ITA singles ranking. Tulsa would get a point back after Connor Di Marco defeated Joao Graca in a third-set tiebreak, 6-1, 1-6, 7-6(5). Vlad Lobak would put the match away, 4-2, after taking down No. 83 Ezequiel Santalla, 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-1.
LSU will take a five-match win streak into Sunday where they’ll take on No. 4 Tennessee (Noon) and Alcorn State (5 p.m.), both at the LSU Tennis Complex.
#40 LSU 4, #32 Tulsa 2
Singles
- #23 Ronald Hohmann (LSU) def. #106 Kody Pearson (TLS) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
- Vlad Lobak (LSU) def. #83 Ezequiel Santalla (TLS) 6-2, 6-7 (2-7), 6-1
- Kent Hunter (LSU) def. Stefan Hampe (TLS) 6-1, 7-5
- Gabriel Diaz Freire (LSU) def. Adham Gaber (TLS) 6-4, 6-4
- Connor Di Marco (TLS) def. Joao Graca (LSU) 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5)
- Boris Kozlov (LSU) vs. Callum Gale (TLS) 4-6, 6-2, 5-5, unfinished
Doubles
- Connor Di Marco/Kody Pearson (TLS) def. Ronald Hohmann/Vlad Lobak (LSU) 7-5
- Kent Hunter/Gabriel Diaz Freire (LSU) def. Daniel Siddall/Tom Thelwall-Jones (TLS) 6-4
- Adham Gaber/Callum Gale (TLS) def. Nick Watson/Boris Kozlov (LSU) 7-6 (9-7)
Match Notes:
Tulsa 11-4; National ranking #32
LSU 11-5; National ranking #40
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (3,4,1,5,2)
Official: Richie Weaver