BATON ROUGE — The sixth-ranked LSU men’s tennis team was upset by seventh-ranked Florida 4-2 on Tuesday afternoon at “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
The loss drops the Tigers to 8-2 overall with a 1-1 Southeastern Conference record. Florida improved to 10-2 and remained perfect in conference play.
“Florida was nearly unstoppable in the top half of their singles line up today,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “We just weren’t able to raise ourselves to their level today.”
The Gators opened the match by becoming the first team in 22 matches to win the doubles point against LSU and taking a 1-0 lead.
“They came out and played tremendous doubles to start. They were then able to carry the momentum they gained there into singles,” said Brown.
In singles, Florida was on fire at Nos. 1-3, taking each match in straight sets to clinch the match quickly. Nathan Overholser finished first for the Gators with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Ed Rubin at No. 3.
Defending NCAA singles champion Jeff Morrison gave the Gators a 3-0 lead with his 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 1 over Michal Chmela.
On court two, Justin O’Neal exacted revenge for a loss in the fall to Tom Hand by beating the LSU senior 6-4, 6-2 to clinch the match.
Shortly later, LSU junior Ajay Ramaswami finished off Troy Hahn, 7-5, 6-3 to get LSU on the board.
Dan Kiernan then won at No. 4 when Olivier Levant retired after the two had split the first two sets. The match at No. 6 was suspended due to rain.
LSU will have a day off before hostin No. 13 Texas A&M on Thursday at 2 p.m. The Aggies knocked off the Tigers 6-1 in College Station, Texas a season ago.
“We will continue to get ready for matches like we always have. It is a long season and we just want to move on and try and take care of the next match.”
Baton Rouge, La.
March 14, 2000
SINGLES
No. 1 – #7 Jeff Morrison (UF) def. #27 Michal Chmela (LSU), 6-3, 6-4
No. 2 – #16 Justin O’Neal (UF) def. #21 Tom Hand (LSU), 6-4, 6-2*
No. 3 – Nathan Overholser (UF) def. Ed Rubin (LSU), 6-2, 6-0
No. 4 – Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. Olivier Levant (UF), 5-7, 7-5, ret.
No. 5 – Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. Troy Hahn (UF), 7-5, 6-3
No. 6 – Jesse Smatt (LSU) vs. Matt Behrmann (UF), suspended
DOUBLES
No. 1 – Morrison-Overholser (UF) def. Chmela-Kiernan, 8-4*
No. 2 – O’Neal-Levant (UF) def. Hand-Rubin (LSU), 8-2
No. 3 – Ramaswami-Smatt (LSU) def. Behrmann-Hahn (UF), 6-3, ret.