BATON ROUGE, La. – Freshman Olaf Pieczkowski of the No. 6 LSU men’s tennis team was awarded SEC Player of the Week, the league office announced on Wednesday.
Pieczkowski delivered an impressive run of matches last weekend. Headlining the top singles court and third doubles spot, he went undefeated, logging consecutive ranked wins in singles to propel the Tigers over conference rivals Texas and Tennessee.
On Friday, March 6, No. 6 LSU travelled to Austin to face the reigning ITA National Indoor Team Champions, No. 2 Texas. Pieczkowski clinched the match for the Tigers in an improbable come-from-behind 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory on court one against No. 4 Sebastian Gorzny. In the biggest win of his young collegiate career, he contributed to program history. The Tigers’ win over the Longhorns is the first in 22 years; furthermore, it marks the program’s highest-ranked win since 1999, when it defeated No. 2 Duke in the NCAA quarterfinal match.
Pieczkowski opened in doubles alongside Enzo Kohlmann, keeping it neck-and-neck with Sebastian Eriksson and Jonah Braswell. After a critical break at 4-3, the pair was able to serve out the match to earn the 6-4 win. They were the first match off, helping LSU claim the doubles point that would later prove crucial.
In his singles match on court one, he faced off against the highest-ranked opponent of his collegiate career in No. 4 Gorzny. He dropped the opening four games and the first set 6-3. However, Pieczkowski was able to claw his way back into the match with a break at 4-2, eventually taking the second set, 6-3. As the last match on court, Gorzny was on the doorstep of sealing the win for the Longhorns with a 5-2 lead. From here, Pieczkowski overwhelmed his opponent, stringing together a remarkable five straight games to clinch the match for the Tigers, dismantling a top-5 player in the nation on his home courts.
Pieczkowski continued his dominance on Sunday, March 8, at home against Tennessee. In singles, he battled his second-straight ranked opponent in No. 78 Jose Garcia. Pieczkowski applied pressure on Garcia from the jump, commanding his way through the opener with an early break at 2-1, followed by another in the last game to take the set 6-3. The Polish native forced Garcia to surrender another early break at 3-1; he was unable to recover as Pieczkowski widened the gap, ultimately taking the second set, 6-2. He was the first match off for the Tigers and contributed to LSU’s first in-conference sweep of the season.
Pieczkowski went undefeated last weekend, winning consecutive singles matches against ranked opponents. Undefeated in conference play at 3-0, he extended his singles winning streak to five, pushing his overall record on court one to 6-3. Furthermore, he earned a decisive doubles victory that got the point for LSU against Texas. Pieczkowski holds a 6-3 mark in doubles, going 3-1 in the SEC and on a two-match win streak with Kohlmann while posting a flawless 4-0 record at the third spot.
LSU returns to action at home to take on No. 28 Oklahoma on Friday, March 13, at 5:30 p.m. CT.
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