The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Ole Miss
No. 17 Ole Miss edges No. 20 Men's Tennis, 4-3
01.24.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns pick up singles wins from Adrian Ortiz, Michael Riechmann and Julian Zlobinsky.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 20 Texas (3-3) rallied from a 3-0 deficit and knotted the match at three points apiece, but No. 17 Ole Miss (2-1) held on for a 4-3 win over the Longhorns Sunday in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event at UT's Weller Indoor Tennis Center.
Texas opened the match with a win at first doubles, as senior Michael Riechmann teamed with sophomore Adrian Ortiz to deal Ole Miss' Filip Kraljevic and Zvonimir Babic a 6-3 defeat. The Rebels, however, won tightly-contested matches at the second and third doubles positions to lock up the doubles point and take a 1-0 lead.
Ole Miss stretched its lead to 3-0 behind straight-sets wins at the first and third singles positions, but Texas commenced a rally after dropping first sets on all six courts. Ortiz dropped his first set to Ole Miss' Grey Hamilton at fourth singles before overcoming an untimely service break to put away the second set, 7-5. Ortiz took control in the third set and put away Hamilton, 6-1 to close the Rebels' lead to 3-1.
Ole Miss' Fabian Fallert claimed the first set from UT's Riechmann at fifth singles, 6-3, but Riechmann produced a late service break on his way to a 6-4 second-set win. Riechmann broke Fallert early on in the final set and took the set, 6-3 to trim UT's deficit to 3-2.
Likewise, UT redshirt freshman Julian Zlobinsky rallied from a set down to win his match. Ole Miss' Vinod Gowda took the first set from Zlobinsky at sixth singles, 6-4 before Zlobinsky rallied to take the second set, 6-2. Zlobinsky broke Gowda right away in the third set, though Gowda followed suit. At 4-all, Zlobinsky held serve and broke Gowda once more to win the final set, 6-4 and even the match at three.
The deciding match at second singles progressed in a manner similar to the preceding three courts, but Ole Miss managed to win the final set to preserve its 4-3 win. Ole Miss' Gustav Hansson took the first set from UT freshman Harrison Scott, 6-4, but Scott took control of the second set and cruised to a 6-2 win.
Hansson broke Scott for a 4-3 lead in the final set, and held serve for 5-3. Scott fought off a match point against him in his next service game and held for 5-4, but Hansson held serve in the ensuing game to win the set, 6-4 and end the match.
Texas returns to action Thursday night (Jan. 28) when it hosts SMU at Weller Indoor Tennis Center. First serve is set for 6 p.m. CT.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Michael Center
We really fought hard today. We had some opportunities to challenge for the doubles point, and I think that's going to happen a lot. We need to continue to improve there, but we're not far off.
We were down 3-0 and lost all of the first sets (in singles), and we fought back and won three three-setters but came up a little short in the last one. I think the guys are learning the kind of resiliency that we need to have in these matches.
I thought we definitely improved from yesterday to today. We have a lot of tough matches coming up, and we just have to keep improving.
No. 17 Ole Miss 4, No. 20 Texas 3
Doubles – Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
1 Michael Riechmann/Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. Filip Kraljevic/Zvonimir Babic (Ole Miss), 6-3
2 Fabian Fallert/Grey Hamilton (Ole Miss) def. George Goldhoff/Julian Zlobinsky (UT), 6-3
3 Stefan Lindmark/Ricardo Jorge (Ole Miss) def. Rodrigo Banzer/Harrison Scott (UT), 7-5
Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 1, 4, 5, 6 2
1 No. 36 Stefan Lindmark (Ole Miss) def. George Goldhoff (UT), 7-5, 6-3
2 Gustav Hansson (Ole Miss) def. No. 94 Harrison Scott (UT), 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
3 Filip Kraljevic (Ole Miss) def. Rodrigo Banzer (UT), 6-1, 6-2
4 Adrian Ortiz (UT) def. Grey Hamilton (Ole Miss), 1-6, 7-5, 6-1
5 No. 114 Michael Riechmann (UT) def. Fabian Fallert (Ole Miss), 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
6 Julian Zlobinsky (UT) def. Vinod Gowda (Ole Miss), 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
Players Mentioned
