BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team will play host to Marist College in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Championships at 10 a.m. on May 12 at home in the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium, the NCAA announced via webcast on Thursday afternoon.
“We’re reaping the rewards of having a solid year,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “A lot of people had this season billed as a rebuilding year for us, but we didn’t believe that and we played well enough to host a regional. Obviously, with the added adrenaline of the crowd, and the enthusiasm that they provide for our team, it gives us a better chance to get through to the round of 16.”
In the other first-round match-up in Baton Rouge, the 22nd-ranked Texas Longhorns (16-5) take on Florida Atlantic (20-4) at 1 p.m. Each match will consist of three doubles pro sets followed by six three-set singles matches. The second-round of the tournament will also be played at the “Dub” at noon on Sunday.
LSU, the 13th seed in the 64-team field, enters the NCAA tournament with a 14-7 overall record and a No. 14 Wingspan.com/ITA national ranking.
Marist, the winner of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, enters the match with a 17-7. Marist College is located in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and has an enrollment of 3,350.
Florida Atlantic qualified based on its championship in the Trans America Athletic Conference, while Texas received an at-large bid.
The team which survives the NCAA Regional will advance to the “Sweet 16” at the NCAA Team Championships in Athens, Ga., from May 17-22, where it will face the winner of No. 4-seeded Texas A&M’s NCAA Regional. The College Station regional also includes St. Bonaventure, Arizona State and Vanderbilt.
Stanford, the No. 1 seed in the field, is the defending national champion.
“We have to just take it one match at a time,” Brown said. “We’ve never seen Marist play, so we’re not going to take them for granted and we’re going to have to make that match as businesslike as possible. If we are fortunate enough to win that match, then we will scout our second-round opponent and see how either Texas or Florida Atlantic are playing.”
In addition to the field for the team championships, the NCAA also announced the 64-player singles draw and the 32-team doubles draw for the NCAA Individual Championships, which will be held May 23-28 in Athens, Ga.
LSU’s No.12-ranked Ajay Ramaswami and No. 48-ranked Dan Kiernan were selected to the singles draw, while Kiernan and freshman Sebastian Rutka were named the third alternate in the doubles draw.
The LSU men’s tennis team will host the Marist Red Foxes in the opening round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament on Saturday, May 12, at 10 a.m. in the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.