BATON ROUGE — In front of a raucous home crowd at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium, the 13th-seeded LSU men’s tennis team held off feisty Texas, 4-2, to advance to the round of 16 to be held in Athens, Ga.
“What we played for during the season was to earn home court advantage because of the edge it gives you,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “There were several crucial points in the matches where we just had a little more adrenaline because of the crowd. When you have people pulling for you, it carries you through those crunch times.”
The Tigers will face No. 4 seed Texas A&M on Saturday, May 19 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The Aggies ousted Vanderbilt from the tournament on Sunday in College Station, Texas.
Junior Jesse Smatt was the hero once again for LSU as he scored the clinching point in the regional final match for the third consecutive year.
Two seasons ago, Smatt clinched the match against Tulane before scoring the final point against Clemson last season.
“Jesse reacts to those fans unbelievably,” Brown said. ” It was like a Broadway show that he was conducting out there at the end.”
Smatt’s 7-6 (4), 6-2, victory over Jose Zarhi at No. 3 singles will send LSU to the Sweet 16 for the seventh straight season and the 17th time in the last 18 years.
The win was a little bit of redemption for the junior from Miami, who was just 5-7 in his past 12 matches.
“My teammates have kept confidence in me that I can win, which has helped me play better lately,” Smatt said. “It is a great feeling to be able to clinch the match, but it is only because of my teammates, Sanjin and Ajay winning, that I was able to be in that position.”
Smatt wasn’t the only LSU player to win despite a late season slump on Sunday. Freshman Sanjin Sadovich put notched his second straight win after dropping seven consecutive matches to close the regular season. Sadovich easily dispatched of Will Clinton at No. 5, 6-2, 6-2 to give LSU an early 2-0 lead.
“Today was a great day for me and my teammates. We got through against a tough Texas team,” said Sadovich. “I had struggled a little bit towards the end of the year, but I kept working hard and it’s starting to pay off.”
The Longhorns battled back right away with singles wins at Nos. 4 and 6.
Michael Domanski scored first for Texas as he beat Anthony Mateljan on court six, 6-1, 6-3.
Ron Kloppert, who played on the Tulane team that fell to LSU in the second round in 1999, knocked off Sebastian Rutka at No. 4, 6-2, 6-2, to knot the score at 2-2.
However, 12th-ranked Ajay Ramaswami won at No. 1, 6-3, 6-4, over No. 35 Jean Simon to give LSU a 3-2 lead and set up Smatt’s victory.
The Tigers opened the match by winning a tightly contested doubles point.
The point came down to the No. 2 position, where Ramaswami and Mateljan fought off Zarhi and Craig Edmondson in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (4).
Rutka and Dan Kiernan, ranked 33rd nationally as a team, beat the 37th-ranked duo of Kloppert and Simon, 8-6, on court one while Domanski and Ryan Haymond beat Smatt and Sadovich on court three, 8-6.
NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Championships
Second Round
Baton Rouge, La.
May 13, 2001
Doubles
No. 1 – #33 Kiernan/Rutka (LSU) def. #37 Kloppert/Simon (Texas), 8-6
No. 2- Ramaswami/Mateljan (LSU) def. Zarhi/Edmondson (Texas), 9-8 (4)
No. 3- Haymond//Domanski (Texas) def. Smatt/Sadovich (LSU), 8-6
Singles
No. 1- #12 Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. #35 Jean Simon (Texas), 6-3, 6-4
No. 2- #48 Dan Kiernan (LSU) vs. #99 Craig Edmondson (Texas), suspended
No. 3- Jesse Smatt (LSU) def. Jose Zarhi (Texas), 7-6 (4), 6-2
No. 4- Ron Kloppert (Texas) def. Sebastian Rutka (LSU), 6-2, 6-2
No. 5- Sanjin Sadovich (LSU) def. Will Clinton (Texas), 6-2, 6-2
No. 6- Michael Domanski (Texas) def. Anthony Mateljan (LSU), 6-1, 6-3
NCAA Sweet 16
Athens, Ga.
May 19, 2001
1. Stanford vs. 16. Pepperdine
8. Tennessee vs. 9. South Alabama
4. Texas A&M vs. 13. LSU
5. TCU vs. 17-32. Southern Cal
2. UCLA vs. 15. Washington
7. SMU vs. 17-32. Mississippi State
3. Georgia vs. 14. California
6. Duke vs. 11. Miami (Fla.)