Under high expectations and the bright, indoor lights of Duckworth Family Tennis Facility, Clemson men’s tennis — ranked No. 25 at the time — kicked off its season by hosting the unranked roster of LSU. The Tigers lost, losing their ranking in the process.

That wasn’t supposed to happen.

But what happened next probably wasn’t supposed to happen either.

The Tigers responded by defeating the No. 14-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia, South Carolina, marking their first win in Columbia since 2011. Last season, the Tigers did something similar when they swept the then-No. 17-ranked Gamecocks 7-0 to claim the state.

With this year’s triumph, Clemson has earned its first back-to-back wins in the Palmetto Bowl since the 2006-07 season.

But that’s not even the icing on the cake. Just one day after taking down the Gamecocks, Clemson took down Harvard 4-1 in Columbia, completing a swing that saw Clemson go from 0-1 to 2-1 in less than a week. The win over Harvard also earned Clemson a ticket to the 2026 ITA DI Men’s National Indoor Championships.

The loss to LSU may be a blemish on an otherwise pretty record, but that outing did something bigger for Clemson: it restructured the roster.

Against LSU, Clemson lost 4-3. Depending on how you look at it, this matchup was decided by the doubles point, which Clemson lost in a tiebreak. The margins were microscopic in this matchup, but against South Carolina and Harvard, Clemson took the doubles point and proceeded to win. Coincidence?

After playing in the No. 2 doubles spot against LSU, Noa Vukadin and Romain Gales were moved to Court No. 1 thereafter. Viktor Markov, who originally played at the No. 1 spot with partner Manuel Plunger, saw a change of scenery in more ways than one. Markov was now playing in the No. 2 doubles spot with a new partner: Henrik Bladelius.

The No. 3 doubles spot — consisting of Yannic Nittmann and Matisse Farzam — is the only doubles court to not see a change since the season started.

It didn’t happen on the first outing, but Brandon Wagner has found his doubles lineup.

In singles, four of the six spots seem to be set in stone. In order from first to fourth, Clemson lines up with Markov, Gales, Vukadin and Farzam. So far, the fifth and sixth singles spots have shuffled around among Marko Mesarovic, Edoardo Chérié Lignière and Plunger.

Roster construction is everything in college tennis, and four freshmen were thrown into the deep end this week, making their collegiate debuts. A learning curve was always inevitable. The good news is that Clemson’s freshmen have already proved they can play.

With Markov, freshman Bladelius defeated the nation’s No. 31-ranked doubles team, taking down South Carolina’s Sean Daryabeigi and Max Stenzer, 6-3.

And while Clemson may have fallen out of the top 25 rankings temporarily, the Tigers have ample opportunity to prove they belong back at the top.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Clemson men’s tennis.