No. 29 Ronnie Hohmann made his second NCAA Singles Tournament appearance on Monday, facing off against a tough opponent in Baylor’s No. 36 Matias Soto. And with the Baylor Bears’ NCAA Tournament run concluding much later than LSU’s (nearly two weeks later in fact), one of the players likely wasn’t dealing with any competitive rust.
So, it would seem.
Hohmann was coming off a solid, albeit shifty performance in the postseason up to this point.
He had one of the, if not the best win in his college career against No. 17 Florian Broska when they faced off against Mississippi State, clinching what was an incredibly tight match. He proceeded to lose two of his next three, with one of the losses coming against the No. 2 player in the country.
Soto had a similar postseason, defeating No. 10 Johannes Monday in his most recent match after losing four of his previous six.
With the players being evenly ranked and having similar post seasons, the match was expected to be tight. But that wasn’t the case.
Hohmann came out dominant, winning the first set 6-2 before starting the second set off in similar fashion. It seemed like he was about to repeat that score in the second before Soto started making a resurgence.
His opponent would take two straight games to make it 5-4, and with one more victory, he would be right back in the match. However, Hohmann held firm, clutching out the next game to finish off Soto.
He’ll see his next action Tuesday, where he’ll face off against No. 16 Juan Carlos Aguilar out of TCU. It’s a 64-player bracket, so this tournament is a long way from being over.