BATON ROUGE — The sixth-ranked LSU men’s tennis team began defense of its Southeastern Conference championship Wednesday with a 5-2 win over No. 16 Mississippi State.
The win improves LSU to 7-1 on the year including a 1-0 conference mark. Mississippi State falls to 4-3, 0-2 in the SEC.
“We didn’t play the best tennis we could, but everyone fought hard,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “We had some guys step up that have been struggling and that is what we will need during the season.”
The Tigers began the match by winning the doubles point for the 20th consecutive match, extending the school record.
The point, which took 95 minutes to decide, came down to court two where the team of Tom Hand and Ed Rubin battled back from a 4-0 deficit in the tiebreaker to defeat Jerome LeBelicard and David Ruiz 9-8 (7).
“Once again, doubles gave us momentum going into singles, but we didn’t think it was necessary today. We were prepared to play singles from behind, but as the case was, we didn’t need to,” said Brown.
In singles, LSU scored wins in the heart of the line up at Nos. 2-5. At No. 3 Dan Kiernan beat Ruiz in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Rubin then knocked off 76th-ranked LeBelicard 6-3, 6-2 on court four to give LSU a 3-1 lead. Jesse Smatt clinched the match with his come-from behind win over Charles Sevigny. Smatt won 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.
Hand later won at No. 2 singles over No. 96 Jeremy Bayon, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to give LSU the final margin of victory.
Mississippi State’s Rene-Charles Combette won at No. 6 over Ajay Ramaswami in the first completed match of the day. The 6-4, 6-1 loss was Ramaswami’s first in dual match play this season.
The Bulldogs other point came when LSU’s No. 27 Michal Chmela retired while leading 13th-ranked Marco Baron.
LSU returns to action on Saturday, March 11 against 33rd-ranked South Alabama at 1 p.m.
Baton Rouge, La.
SINGLES
No. 1 – #13 Marco Baron (MSU) def. #27 Michal Chmela, 6-7 (7), 4-3, ret.
No. 2 – #21 Tom Hand (LSU) def. #96 Jeremy Bayon, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
No. 3 – Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. David Ruiz, 6-4, 6-4
No. 4 – Ed Rubin (LSU) def. #76 Jerome LeBelicard, 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 – Jesse Smatt (LSU) def. Charles Sevigny, 2-6, 6-2, 6-0
No. 6 – Rene-Charles Combette (MSU) def. Ajay Ramaswami (LSU), 6-4, 6-1
DOUBLES
No. 1 – #17 Baron-Sevigny (MSU) def. Chmela-Kiernan, 8-5
No. 2 – Hand-Rubin (LSU) def. LeBelicard-Ruiz, 9-8 (7)
No. 3 – Ramaswami-Smatt (LSU) def. Bayon-Combette, 8-4