LSU cleared its first hurdle of the postseason, winning the rematch against No. 34 Mississippi State to advance to the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. After losing their previous matchup 3-4 at home, the Tigers displayed a tremendous amount of growth in their second meeting, having multiple avenues to victory by the time the match was clinched at 4-1.
The two matches between these teams went completely differently, starting with doubles.
LSU’s Kent Hunter and Gabriel Diaz Freire would kick off the victories for the Tigers, avenging the 5-7 loss they suffered in their first meeting with a 6-4 win. Mississippi State earned the doubles point on Court 3, which left everything up to the battle on Court 1.
Ronnie Hohmann and Vlad Lobak had the No. 41 duo, Florian Broska and Gregor Ramskogler, locked in a 5-5 stalemate, needing two wins to secure victory. The Bulldogs had previously won in this situation, but LSU wasn’t about to allow a repeat.
The Tiger pair would win the next two games, and LSU now only needed three points in singles to clinch the match. They carried that resilience into singles, and then some.
After the Bulldogs swiftly tied the match at 1-1, the gears seemed to temporarily shift in Mississippi State’s favor. The Tigers began to fall behind in their second sets after previously winning four of their firsts. That shift would be halted by two players sporting Purple and Gold.
After falling behind 0-4 to start off his second set, Boris Kozlov would take his car out of park and stomp on the gas. He responded to his opponent’s four straight victories with four of his own before winning three of his last four to secure the match at 6-1, 7-5.
His teammate on Court 4, Gabriel Diaz Freire, clutched out his match in a similar fashion, dropping the first two games and immediately responding by tying the match at 2-2. The battle would go back-and-forth from there, eventually ending up at 5-5, where Diaz Freire would ultimately finish the job.
The score was now 3-1, but that did not mean LSU had secured the victory. The Tigers still had a job to finish and a tough slate the rest of the way.
Courts 1-3 remained, with two of those featuring Mississippi State players that rank in the top-75. And when the last match entered its third set, the Bulldogs already had Kent Hunter on the ropes on Court 3, on top of stealing the momentum on the other two courts.
But despite the odds being against the Tigers, a shift started to occur.
It was like LSU’s remaining three were feeding off of each other’s momentum, dealing their blows in synonymous fashion and in waves. Whenever one player got a huge win or point, it seemed like more would surely follow on the other courts.
Kent Hunter pulled off LSU’s second big comeback on the day, rallying back from an 0-4 deficit to tie the match up at 4-4. On Court 2, Vlad Lobak held his own against No. 68 Nemanja Malesevic despite losing momentum in the second set, having the match in a 5-5 tie with momentum on his side.
But it was Ronnie Hohmann that would clinch the match for the Tigers in the most dominant way possible. After dropping four of the last five in the second set and falling behind 1-2 in the third, Hohmann ignited, winning five in a row to secure the victory. That win came against No. 22 Florian Broska, nearly matching his best win of the season against Ole Miss’s Nikola Slavic, who was ranked No. 21 at the time.
This win surely tops that one in terms of importance though.
On top of this being a big win for the program in general, it was also important in keeping them in the talks for the NCAA tournament. LSU might have just booked its ticket with this huge win. The Tigers will look to further solidify their position in the NCAA tournament against No. 3 Florida tomorrow.
