The Ole Miss Men's Tennis Team pulled out all the stops Friday in a thrilling 5-2 victory over LSU - certainly its most exciting since the early win over defending national champion Georgia. Of course, there were a few exciting details you might not have read in the Ole Miss release. Those follow after the jump.
The win moved the Rebels to 9-0 in the SEC, one win away from clinching the regular season title. Sunday's match pits the netters against Arkansas, who entered the weekend with two conference wins.
The match was clinched when Bram ten Berge, man-crush of the Cup and famed fellow bloggeur, won his final set 7-6, after having dropped the first one 0-6, which even people confused by tennis scoring understand is an unfortunate score.
Otto Sauer played the most even match of the day. He lost his first set 6-7 on a tie-break. He won his second set 7-6 on a tie-break. Soon after he won the second set, his LSU opponent retired - which is tennis-speak for "the match was over, the Rebels had won, and his opponent was tired."
The Rebels dropped the doubles point. If I remember correctly, this is the first time in conference play this season that they have not won the doubles point. Jonas Berg and ten Berge lost their match 5-8. Of course, the most bizarre part of their match was when a swarm - not two or three, but two or three hundred - bees attacked Jonas Berg, whose motto when it comes to bees must be the same as Brett Maverick - "he who fights and runs away can ... run away another day." Of course, if Jonas Berg was afraid of bees, he wasn't afraid of LSU's star player, Michael Venus, who entered the day ranked #6 in the country. Jonas fed that boy his lunch, 6-1, 6-2. It was quite the show by the Rebels star senior, and I was pumped.
Finally, shouts go out to current FOtC and former bloggeur "John" 25 Days A Week "Doe," whose late-cup-name I will abbreviate as "25 Days." Not only did he curse an LSU, he did so with expletives that cannot be repeated on network television and directed them at a purple and gold clad senior citizen. When I impugned his civility, he retorted that she deserved it. After considering that she, a tiger tennis fan, was likely a long-time, die-hard fan, I considered that, based on that criteria alone, I agreed.