BATON ROUGE — The sixth-ranked LSU men’s tennis team won its eighth straight match at home on Thursday afternoon with a 5-2 victory over Southern Miss.
The Tigers improve to 6-1 on the season while the Golden Eagles fall to 5-3.
“This was a good win against a quality opponent,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “(Southern Miss coach) Teddy (Viator) always brings a good team here and we did a nice job to get the victory.”
LSU jumped out to its customary 1-0 by winning the doubles point for the 20th consecutive match. The duo of Jesse Smatt and Ajay Ramaswami clinched the point with its 8-3 victory over Nicolas Carteret and Uwe Gneitung at No. 3.
Michal Chmela and Daniel Kiernan improved to 12-0 in doubles dual matches over the last two seasons with their 8-6 win over Mikka Kangas and Daniel Homodes at No. 1
“We did an good job of setting the tone in doubles,” said Brown. “We came out very focused and played well to get the lead heading into singles.”
Ajay Ramaswami won his seventh in a row to stay undefeated in dual action with an easy 6-0, 6-1 victory over Uwe Gneitung at No. 6 singles.
At No. 5, Jesse Smatt got his first win in four matches as he cruised to a 6-3, 6-2 win over Nicolas Carteret. That set up No. 27 Michal Chmela to clinch the match at No. 2 with his 6-2, 6-2 win over Mathias Werren.
With the match already clinched, Southern Miss put two points on the board as Daniel Homodes won 6-3, 6-3 over Ed Rubin at No. 3 and David Jansson beat Dan Kiernan 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4.
Tom Hand finished up the action with his 97th career victory, good enough for sole possession of fifth place in LSU history for career wins. He notched a 6-3, 6-4 win over Mikka Kangas at No. 1.
“We found some spots today that we need to work on before we get into SEC play,” said Brown. “We have six days to prepare for Mississippi State which should be one of our toughest matches yet this year.”
The Tigers will return to action on March 8 as they take on Southeastern Conference foe Mississippi State at 2 p.m.
#6 LSU 5, Southern Miss 2
Baton Rouge, La.
Singles
No. 1 – Tom Hand (LSU) def. Mikka Kangas (USM), 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 – Michal Chmela (LSU) def. Mathias Werren (USM), 6-2, 6-2
No. 3 – Daniel Homodes (USM) def. Ed Rubin (LSU), 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 – David Jansson (USM) def. Dan Kiernan (LSU), 6-4, 6-2
No. 5 – Jesse Smatt (LSU) def. Nicolas Cateret (USM), 6-3, 6-2
No. 6 – Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. Uwe Gneitung (USM), 6-0, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 – Chmela-Kiernan (LSU) def. Kangas-Homodes (USM) 8-6
No. 2 – Hand-Rubin (LSU) vs. Werren-Jansson (USM), suspended
No. 3 – Smatt-Ramaswami (LSU) def. Gneitung-Carteret (USM), 8-3