straight SEC Championship title

College Station, Texas – No. 1 Texas Men's Tennis captured its second-straight SEC Championship title with a 4-2 win over 2 seed No. 6 Mississippi State on Sunday at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station.

Texas has now swept both the regular season and tournament championships both of its seasons in the league. It also marks the 10th conference tournament championship in program history (1990, 1993, 1997, 1999, 2006, 2010, 2018, 2024, 2025, 2026).

After winning the doubles point in decisive fashion at Nos. 2 and 3, the Longhorns found themselves down a set in five of the six singles matches. Mississippi State completed wins at Nos. 4 and 1 to take a 2-1 overall lead, but Texas responded with a straight-sets win by sophomore No. 46 Sebastian Erkisson at No. 3, and followed with three-set comebacks by freshman No. 34 Kalin Ivanovski at No. 2 and freshman Lucas Marionneau for the clinch. Marionneau also clinched the regular the regular season match against the Bulldogs, which was a 4-3 win in Starkville in February.

"I'm really proud of that effort," said head coach Bruce Berque. "I think any coach would be when your team shows resilience, character, toughness and determination. We showed all of those things today, down five first sets and almost six. We just kept hanging in there and finding away. One thing that was nice is some of the guys who were winning this week weren't playing as well, and we had other guys step up, so it was nice to see us doing it different ways from different people. And I was really happy to see us play arguably our best doubles point of the season."

In doubles, the No. 24 duo of Marionneau and senior Sebastian Gorzny was first off the court with a 6-2 win over Niccolo Baroni and Mario Martinez Serrano at No. 2. Moments later, the No. 40 pair of Eriksson and sophomore Oliver Ojakaar came through with the clinch, 6-3, over Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes and Bryan Hernandez Cortes at No. 3. That left the match at No. 1 unfinished where Ivanovski and freshman Abel Forger trailed, 3-4, but were on serve against No. 77 Michal Novansky and Benito Sanchez Martinez.

In the first singles match to finish, No. 93 Forger fell to No. 123 Hernandez Cortes, 6-3, 6-4, at No. 5. No. 3 Gorzny was then downed by No. 7 Sanchez Martinez, 6-2, 6-4 at No. 1. That would be when the Longhorns would turn around singles starting Eriksson, who posted a 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 91 Martinez Serrano at No. 3 to even the overall match at 2-2.

Three matches remained at that point, all beside each other on the same end of the courts. After dropping his first set and taking the second, Ivanovski maintained a break lead for most of his third set at No. 2. Although he had break chances against him at 15-40 that could have evened the set, 5-5, he responded with three-straight points to take the 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over No. 81 Baroni.

At that same time at No. 6, Marionneau had rallied from a first-set defeat, turning his match around midway through the second set after trailing, 4-2, and at the time of Ivanovski's win, Marionneau was leading, 5-0, in the third. That resulted in his 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 clinch over Ferrer Guimaraes.

In the remaining match at No. 4, Ojakaar had also responded from a first-set loss and had set points earlier in his second set against Raphael Vaksmann prior to it ending up in a tiebreaker that Ojakaar was leading, 7-6, when play stopped.

After the match, Gorzny was named Tournament MVP, while Forger was selected to the All-Tournament Team with Gorzny.

The Longhorns will next await selection to the NCAA Tournament on Monday, April 27, at 4 p.m. CT on NCAA.com.

#1 Texas 4, #6 Mississippi State 2

Singles – Order of Finish (5,1,3,2,6)

1. #7 Benito Sanchez Martinez (MSST) def. #3 Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 6-2, 6-4

2. #34 Kalin Ivanovski (TEX) def. #84 Niccolo Baroni (MSST) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4

3. #46 Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) def. #91 Mario Martinez Serrano (MSST) 7-5, 6-4

4. Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) vs. Raphael Vaksmann (MSST) 4-6, 6-6 (7-6), unf.

5. #123 Bryan Hernandez Cortes (MSST) def. #93 Abel Forger (TEX) 6-3, 6-4

6. Lucas Marionneau (TEX) def. Roberto Ferrer Guimaraes (MSST) 2-6, 7-5, 6-1

Doubles – Order of Finish (2,3)

1. Abel Forger/Kalin Ivanovski (TEX) vs. #77 Michal Novansky/Benito Sanchez Martinez (MSST) 3-4, unf.

2. #24 Sebastian Gorzny/Lucas Marionneau (TEX) def. Niccolo Baroni/Mario Martinez Serrano (MSST) 6-2

3. #40 Sebastian Eriksson/Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) def. Ro Ferrer Guimaraes/Bryan Hernandez Cortes (MSST) 6-3

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