BATON ROUGE — The second-ranked LSU men’s tennis team ran its record to a perfect 3-0 on Sunday with a 6-1 win over in-state rival New Orleans.
“It was a good match for us to win,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “UNO brought in a good team that was very competitive and exposed some of our weaknesses. It will help us down the road as we prepare for the National Indoors.”
The Tigers jumped on the Privateers early by sweeping the doubles matches. The team of Ed Rubin and Tom Hand clinched the point for LSU with an 8-4 win at the No. 1 position.
In singles, LSU clinched the match early with three solid victories. Hand won his 20th match of the season on court one by a 6-1, 6-2 count.
Sophomores Dan Kiernan and Jesse Smatt also won easily. Kiernan recorded a 6-4, 6-3 win over Viktor Loven at No. 2 while Smatt clinched the match with his 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 5 over Niclas Adnoff.
With the match already clinched, LSU had to fight for its other two points as Ed Rubin won 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6) on court three and Ajay Ramaswami rallied for a 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-3 victory at No. 4.
This match marked the final dual match for LSU until the National Indoor Championships to be held in Louisville, Ky., late next month.
#2 LSU 6, New Orleans 1
Doubles
No. 1 – Hand-Rubin (LSU) def. Locatelli-Loven, 8-4
No. 2 – Mateljan-Smatt (LSU) def. Oding Szczepanski, 8-3
No. 3 – Kiernan-Pou (LSU) def. Adnoff-Chkroun, 8-2
Singles
No. 1 – #13 Tom Hand (LSU) def. Sebastian Locatelli, 6-1, 6-2
No. 2 – Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. Viktor Loven, 6-4, 6-3
No. 3 – Ed Rubin (LSU) def. Magnus Oding, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6)
No. 4 – Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. Peter Szczepanski, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 6-3
No. 5 – Jesse Smatt (LSU) def. Niclas Adnoff, 6-0, 6-3
No. 6 – Michael Chkroun (UNO) def. Anthony Mateljan, 4-6, 6-3, 10-8*
* a 10-point tiebreaker was played in place of the third set