No. 41 LSU (15-10, 4-8 SEC) faced an even opponent in No. 44 Arkansas (14-13, 3-9 SEC) to close out its regular season. Each team brought their A-game, not making it easy for their opponents at any point in the match.
Both teams had suffered disappointment in their previous matches, with LSU coming up short in a near-upset over No. 10 Kentucky and Arkansas losing a tight one against No. 36 Ole Miss. That made this match all the more important, as each team needed the win to build up some momentum heading into the postseason.
With this match predicted to come down to the last point or two, the doubles point was incredibly important.
Two of the three doubles matches finished quickly, as LSU’s Kent Hunter and Gabriel Diaz Freire won 6-2 on Court 3 and Arkansas’s Alex Reco and Nico Rousset took down LSU’s Ronnie Hohmann and Vlad Lobak on Court 1. That would leave it up to Nick Watson and Ben Koch to claim the doubles point for the Tigers.
And boy, it was a close one.
From 3-3 to 4-4 to 5-5 to 6-6… The match was back-and-forth the entire time, elevating in intensity as the stakes grew higher. The tiebreaker set was much of the same, ending up at 6-6 as well.
Normally, seven points in a tiebreaker set would be the end of it, but with the score being tied, a duo would have to score two points in a row to take it. Thankfully for the Tigers, Watson and Koch would do just that and LSU would go into singles with a one-point lead.
That doubles point proved to be important, with the match coming down to the final point in singles.
After the Tigers jumped out to a 3-1 lead, Arkansas stormed back with three-set wins on Courts 1 and 4 to tie the match. That left Vlad Lobak and his Arkansas opponent with all of the pressure on Court 2.
Similar to LSU’s last match in doubles, Lobak’s match would mostly go back-and-forth, eventually ending up at a tied score of 4-4. However, unlike the aforementioned doubles match, he would not need a tiebreaker to finish it off.
Two straight wins and the Tigers were victorious, with the graduate transfer finishing with a winning score of 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Ultimately, this was a huge match, and a huge weekend in general, for the Tigers, as they not only pulled off their first SEC victory in about a month, but also showed their potential against Kentucky. This team could very well pull off a run in the tournament if they manage to get hot.
They start their SEC tournament path with a tough but manageable opponent in No. 35 Mississippi State. The match will take place at 3 p.m. on Thursday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Georgia.