GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The 17th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team looks to earn its fifth-Southeastern Conference victory of the season on Friday, as the Tigers invade the swamp in a conference battle against the Florida Gators here in Gainesville, Fla.
“They’ve gone through some adversity this season by having a lot of injuries to their starters,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “But lately they have been started to come together a bit, and they have won their last three matches. They are playing some really good tennis right now and we have to meet them head-on with an air of confidence and accept the challenge.”
The Tigers enter Friday’s SEC contest with an overall record of 11-4 on the season and a 4-3 mark against conference opponents. LSU dropped its previous match to 12th-ranked Auburn, 4-3, on the road in Auburn, Ala.
Florida heads into the match with a 3-2 conference record and an even 9-9 overall mark on the season. The Gators defeated Brown, 6-1, on Wednesday to notch their third-straight victory. Florida was also victorious over Georgia State (6-1) and Kentucky (4-3) in the opening two matches of its streak.
LSU leads the all-time series between the two schools, 21-18-1, despite falling to the Gators, 4-2, in last year’s contest at home in the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium. The Tigers have dominated the recent meetings on the road in Florida. LSU has been victorious in each of its last four visits to Linder Stadium with the Gators’ previous home win over the Tigers coming by a 7-2 score on Feb. 3, 1991.
The Tigers boast the services of two nationally-ranked singles players and two top-50 doubles teams. LSU’s 10th-ranked Ajay Ramaswami and 64th-ranked Dan Kiernan lead the Tigers in singles play, while the 40th-ranked duo of Jesse Smatt and Sanjin Sadovich along with the 29th-ranked combination of Kiernan and Sebastian Rutka are a dominant force in the doubles competition.
Florida’s Nathan Overholser, Jeremy Wurtzman, and Olivier Levant are all nationally ranked in both singles and doubles play. Overholser enters Friday’s match as the 21st-ranked singles player in the nation, while Wurtzman and Levant are No. 47 and No. 72, respectively.
In doubles, the Gators’ combination of Levant and Overholser is ranked No.14 in the nation, while as a team Overholser and Wurtzman make up the 28th-ranked pair and Levant and Wurtzman round out the top 50 at No. 50.
The 17th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will face the Florida Gators on Friday at 4 p.m. (Central time) in Gainesville, Fla.