Ole Miss Men’s Tennis Tops No. 30 Arkansas for First SEC Win

OXFORD, Miss. — The No. 34 Ole Miss men’s tennis team secured a 4-1 victory over No. 30 Arkansas on Friday at the Palmer Salloum Tennis Center. The win marked Ole Miss’s first SEC victory this season, according to the university.

Ole Miss opened the match by claiming the doubles point. The No. 40 duo of Kai Milburn and Isac Stromberg defeated Eric Padgham and Ben Weintraub, 6-3. Arkansas responded with a win on another court before Stefano D’Agostino and Pietro Pampanin clinched the point for the Rebels with a 7-5 victory over Connor Smillie and Jakub Vrba.

The Rebels carried their momentum into singles play. Noah Schlagenhauf defeated Arsene Pougault, 6-0, 6-2, to make it 2-0. Arkansas’s Vrba then beat D’Agostino, but Ole Miss’s Chambonniere won his match, 6-1, 6-4, over Lukas Palovic, putting Ole Miss ahead 3-1.

The deciding point came from freshman Vlado Jankanj, who was leading Gabriel Elicha Navas 6-4, 5-1, when Navas tossed the ball into the air and hit it toward Jankanj, who responded with a swift return that Navas couldn’t reach. Jankanj’s shot sealed the victory for Ole Miss. This was his third clinching win of the season, according to Ole Miss athletics.

Ole Miss (13-2, 1-2 SEC) will face LSU on March 27 in Baton Rouge in their next match. The Rebels’ upcoming schedule also includes matches against Vanderbilt, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia, among others.

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