No.44 LSU Defeats No. 62 Ole Miss 4-1 in First Round of SEC Tournament
BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 44 LSU Men’s Tennis team (14-12) will advance in the SEC Tournament after defeating No. 62 Ole Miss (12-15) by a score of 4-1 in Tuesday’s match.
“I am super excited for the guys,” said head coach Danny Bryan. “We’ve been through a lot in these past couple months and they’ve stayed together. There were so many good things that happened today and a lot of the guys stepped up.”
“George Stoupe went down last Friday against Vandy so a lot of guys stepped up today. Alessio Vasquez winning at court No. 2 against a player I don’t think we’ve ever beaten to be honest. I think we were 0-6 against him so that was obviously a huge deal. Julien Penzlin has a really good match. Chen Dong clinched the match which was huge against a very good player. Last year in the SEC Tournament, Chen was in that same position against Ole Miss in the first round. He was actually in the third set and ended up losing so I am so happy for him getting the win today. We’ve talked about how to learn from that match and how to handle that situation and he did a really great job today. The crowd today was great and I think being able to have our fans here really motivates the players and I hope to see more at tomorrow’s match against A&M.”
Doubles
The Tigers brought momentum to start the match and convincingly took the doubles point. On the No. 3 court, Welsh Hotard and Aleksi Lofman teamed up against Isac Stromberg and Noah Schlagenhauf. The Tigers defeated the Rebels by a quick score of 6-2. Hotard and Lofman earned their first win together in today’s match.
Stefan Latinovic and Ben Koch clinched the doubles point on the No. 2 after defeating Carson Baker and John Hallquist Lithen in a quick 6-2 set. This was the second time this season the duo has won on the No. 2 doubles court.
Singles
LSU continued the energy into the singles matches today and took three out of the four singles points scored. On the No. 1 court, Aleksi Lofman fell to No. 47 Nikola Slavic by a score of 6-2, 6-3 in the Tigers only dropped match of the day.
On the No. 4 court, Julien Penzlin created a 2-1 lead for LSU after defeating Lukas Engelhardt by a score of 6-4, 6-3. Penzlin has seen a lot of success on the singles courts this season with a 15-6 record that leads the Tigers.
Leaving the Tigers with only one match left to clinch the game, Alessio Vasquez defeated John Hallquist Lithen 6-4, 6-2. He has now earned seven wins this season between courts one, two, four, and five.
Chen Dong clinched the match for the Tigers after going to three sets against Noah Schlagenhauf. The first set went to Shlagenhauf by a narrow score of 6-4. Dong fought back, taking the second set by a score of 6-2 and forcing a third. Dong quickly won the final set by a score of 6-1 and made the final match score 4-1 for the Tigers.
Results
#44 LSU 4, #62 OM 1
Doubles
- #59 Dong/Penzlin (LSU) vs. #68 Slavic/Engelhardt (OM) 4-3, unfinished
- Latinovic/Koch (LSU) def. Baker/Hallquist Lithen (OM) 6-2
- Hotard/Lofman (LSU) def. Stromberg/Schlagenhauf (OM) 6-2
Singles
- # 47 Nikola Slavic (OM) def. Aleksi Lofman (LSU) 6-2, 6-3
- Alessio Vasquez (LSU) def. John Hallquist Lithen (OM) 6-4, 6-2
- Rudy Ceccon (LSU) vs. Isac Stromber (OM) 6-4, 5-7, 0-2, unfinished
- Julien Penzlin (LSU) def. Lukas Engelhardt (OM) 6-4, 6-3
- Chen Dong (LSU) def. Noah Schlagenhauf (OM) 4-6, 6-2, 6-1
- Welsh Hotard (LSU) vs. Carson Baker (OM) 5-7, 6-3, unfinished
Match Notes
Order Of Finish: Doubles (3, 2); Singles (1, 4, 2, 5)
Up Next
LSU will advance into the second round of the SEC Tournament and face No. 14 Texas A&M (18-9) at 6 p.m. at the LSU Tennis Complex.
Fans can buy tickets at LSUtix.net. Adults can purchase all-session passes for $15 and all-session passes for youth (12 and under) for $12. Day passes can also be purchased at $5 for adults and $2 for youth. Gates will open one hour prior to the first match of each day. The match will be free for LSU Students.
#44 LSU vs. #14 Texas A&M
Notes on Texas A&M
The Aggies have a record of 18-9 on the season and 7-5 in conference play. They are currently ranked at No. 14 in the latest ITA rankings and are the No. #5 seed in the SEC Tournament.
Two members of the team are currently ranked in singles. Raphael Perot has a record of 13-10 on the season and is ranked No. 24. JC Roddick is one of A&M leaders in singles with a 14-8 record on the season. He currently sits at No. 38.
Togane Tokac and Giulio Perego are the only Aggie duo ranked in doubles. They have a 12-6 record on the season and are currently ranked No. 16.
Series History
In series history, LSU and Texas A&M have a record of 20-34, in favor of A&M.
The teams last met in March of 2024 where the Tigers fell to No. 10 A&M by a score of 5-2. LSU had singles wins from George Stoupe and Rudy Ceccon.
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