OXFORD, Miss. – The Vanderbilt men’s tennis team concluded its regular season with a trip to Ole Miss and fell to the host Rebels 5-2 Sunday afternoon.
Senior Macsen Sisam and junior Siim Troost were the bright spots of the day, pairing up as a team to win the only doubles match on the day and grabbing the only two points for the Commodores after winning their respective singles matches.
The Dores finish the regular season with a 14-11 record, 11-5 at home and 2-10 in SEC play. Vanderbilt will face Alabama in the first round of the SEC Tournament Wednesday.
Seeing Double
- The Rebels clinched the doubles point with wins on Courts 2 and 3 Sunday afternoon.
- The Dores got off to a slow start after fifth-year senior George Harwell and junior Joubert Klopper fell to Jan Soren Hain and Simon Junk of Ole Miss, 6-1, on Court 2.
- Sisam and Troost won their first match as a doubles team and took down No. 17 Lukas Engelhardt and Finn Reynolds of Ole Miss on the top court, 6-1. This marked Sisam’s first ranked doubles win on the season and Troost’s fourth.
- Coming down to Court 3, the Rebels grabbed the opening point after freshman Michael Ross and sophomore Jeremie Casabon fell to their Rebels opponents, 6-3.
Sights on Singles
- Ole Miss dominated singles play, winning four out of six courts.
- The Rebels continued the momentum and got off to a fast start, taking wins on Courts 1, 2 and 4 to take the 4-0 lead.
- Making his way back to the singles lineup, Sisam stepped up to post the Dores’ first point on the day after defeating Jakob Cadonau of Ole Miss in a three-set thriller on Court 6. Cadonau took the first set, but Sisam came back strong, pushing to a third and final set after winning the second set without dropping a point, 6-0. Sisam won the final set 6-2 to win his seventh-straight singles match and first in SEC play.
- On Court 3, fifth-year senior Max Freeman came out strong to win the first set tiebreaker, 7-6 (3), before his Ole Miss opponent ultimately won the match after winning the final two sets. The Rebels had a 5-1 lead over the Dores at this point.
- Troost closed out the match strong for the Dores to grab his first SEC win at the No. 5 singles spot. After losing the first set, the junior came back to win the three-set thriller against Soren Hain of Ole Miss, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.
Next Serve: Postseason Begins at SEC Tournament
Vandy looks ahead for a postseason reset, starting with the SEC Tournament Wednesday in Athens, Georgia, where the 12th-seeded Dores will face the 13th-seeded Crimson Tide in the first round. Vandy’s only SEC title in program history came in 2003 when it swept Florida 4-0 in Oxford.
