Kentucky men’s tennis kept its playoffs hope alive with a decisive victory 4-1 over Ole Miss.
With the win, the Wildcats snapped their rough four-match losing streak.
“Feels good to be back, I think we play better at home,” Head Coach Cedric Kauffmann said. “With our facilities and fans, we are a young team, so it makes a big difference.”
Being back home was exactly the boost the Cats needed, putting on a strong doubles performance to start the day. Antoine Ghibaudo and Jaden Weekes put on a dominant performance, taking the win 6-1 over Noah Schalgenhauf and Loan Lestir.
Martin Breysach and Charlelie Cosnet continued their impressive play, taking down Benjamin Martin and Mathi Chamvonniere 6-3. This impressive showing was led by a fiery performance from Cosnet.
Jack Loutit and Eli Stephenson, currently ranked at No. 19 in the ITA rankings, faced a challenge going against No. 51 ranked Isac Stromberg and Kai Milburn, who started off by taking a huge lead going up 4-1.
Loutit and Stephenson started making an incredible comeback to bring the score to 5-4 but would be stopped early with the Cats already taking the two doubles wins they needed.
“Very Important, we look at it as an opportunity to improve. Coming back home after some very close losses has us motivated knowing with just getting four or five more points, we’d be a top 12 team,” Assistant Coach Carey Rubin said. “Close losses to Auburn and Tennessee have held us back, but we’re ready to come in strong with the tournament around the corner.”
The great play from Ghibaudo continued to singles play, which pushed the motivation for the Wildcats taking the singles win 7-5 and 6-2 over Noah Schlagenhauf. Ghibaudo is currently ranked No. 62 in the country.
Weekes showed why he’s the No. 81 ranked player following his great doubles performance and kept it rolling by taking a dominant singles win over Stromberg 6-4 and 6-2.
Cosnet looked to keep his fiery momentum going heading into his singles match against Lestir but fell just short in a very competitive back-and-forth match. Each set would go down to the tiebreaker with Lestir taking the first set 7-6 (7-4) and the second set 7-6 (7-2) giving the Rebels their first point of the day.
Loutit is the No. 61 ranked singles player and kept having adversity coming for him. After taking the first set 6-4, he looked to keep his great play going but had a rough stretch dropping the second set 6-1 against Marcel Kamrowski.
Heading into the third set, Kamrowski kept his dominance rolling by taking a 4-1 lead. Loutit proved why he is as respected as he is by pulling off an incredible comeback taking five straight games to win the set 6-4.
With Loutit taking the win, Kentucky claimed the victory over Ole Miss leading to Stephenson’s and Matt Rankins matches going unfinished after both took their respective first sets.
Kentucky will look to keep its undefeated home record going starting with a doubleheader against Eastern Illinois followed by its final two SEC matchups of the regular season against Oklahoma and Arkansas.
