No. 9 LSU beats No. 8 Mississippi State to advance

ATHENS, Ga. (April 21, 2022) -The LSU men's tennis team advanced to the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament after the No. 9 Tigers defeated No. 8 Mississippi State, 4-1, Thursday afternoon.

LSU picked up their first win at the SEC Tournament since the 2014-15 season when they defeated Ole Miss, 4-1.

Doubles were a battle as the Tigers and Bulldogs traded wins to start the day. Gabriel Diaz Freire and Kent Hunter defeated Nemanja Malesevic/Davide Tortora, 6-4, but Ben Koch and Nick Watson fell to Carles Hernandez/Bautista Vilicich, 4-6. The match on court one between Vlad Lobak/Ronald Hohmann and MSU's ranked duo in #41 Florian Broska/Gregor Ramskogler would decide the doubles point. Lobak/Hohmann found themselves down, 4-5, but rallied back to tie it up at five. The LSU duo would ring off two straight points, securing the doubles point for the Tigers.

LSU took that momentum into singles, where the Tigers picked up four of the six first sets. Mississippi State would be the first to strike in singles after Davide Tortora defeated Joao Graca, 6-1, 6-2. On court six, Boris Kozlov rolled through his first set, 6-1. Kozlov fell behind 0-4 in his second set, but flipped the script as he strung off five-consecutive game victories. With the second set tied at 5-5, Kozlov won two more games and took the match, 6-1, 7-5. As LSU lead 2-1, Gabriel Diaz Freire also picked up a straight-set victory on court four, 6-3, 7-5.

LSU would need one more court for the victory as courts one, two, and three would head to a third set. The top-50 matchup between No. 42 Ronald Hohmann and No. 22 Florian Broska was just as advertised. Hohmann picked up the first set, 6-4, and Broska won the second set, 3-6. Hohmann rolled through the third-set, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, and clinched the victory for LSU, 4-1.

#9 LSU will face off against #1 Florida in the SEC Quarterfinals on Friday, April 21, at 2:00 p.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia.