The Ole Miss men’s tennis team attempted to defend the home court on Friday as the No. 19 Columbia Lions traveled to Oxford. 

Unfortunately, the Rebels suffered their second loss of the season in what has now turned into a short losing streak. After starting the season 3-0, Ole Miss has now dropped to 3-2.

The double point was tightly contested and took all three matches to decide. 

The first doubles court pitted Lukas Engelhardt and Nikola Slavic of Ole Miss against Max Westphal and Nicolas Kotzen. Kotzen and Westphal prevailed 6-3. 

The third court was the second game to finish, and gave the Rebels a tying point as Isac Stromberg and Noah Schlagenhauf prevailed against Alex Kotzen and Michael Zheng. 

With the doubles point in the balance, John Hallquist-Lithen and Simon Junk faced off against Roko Horvat and Theo Winegar. Unfortunately, the Ole Miss duo fell 6-4 and the doubles point went to Columbia.

The Rebels’ lone point of the night came in the first singles match up as Slavic faced off against Zheng, the No. 11 player nationally. In his highest ranked match of the year, Slavic gritted out a victory in two sets despite both going to extra points. The final score was 7-6 (4), 7-2 (2).

Columbia swept Ole Miss in the rest of the singles matchups to give them a 6-1 final win.

Hallquist-Lithen lost to Alex Kotzen in the second singles match by a score of 1-6, 7-5, 0-1.

Junk lost to Horvat in the third singles match by a score of 4-6, 2-6.

Engelhardt lost to Hugo Hasimoto in the fourth singles match by a score of 3-6, 3-6.

Schlagenhauf lost to Nicolas Kotzen in the fifth singles match by a score of 3-6, 3-7.

Stromberg of Ole Miss lost to Henry Ruger in the sixth singles match by a score of 0-6, 2-6.

Ole Miss needs to finish stronger. Too many sets are being decided in extra points, yet being won by the opposition. Both Rebel losses this season came at the hands of lost points in tightly contested matches, meaning that the team must be able to perform at the end of sets and matches.