LEXINGTON, Ky. — The 15th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will take part in its first competition of the spring season on Thursday, as all seven Tigers head to Lexington, Ky., to compete in the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships.
“Although this is the last individual tournament before the start of the dual season, we realize the importance of this event,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. We know that we will be facing all of these same players during the regular season and it is important for our players to get an edge on some of them. This is a good way for our team to gain some critical confidence for the beginning of the regular season.”
Competing for the Tigers in the four-day event held at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center will be 42nd-ranked Dan Kiernan, 85th-ranked Brian Fisher, Brandon Nicholson, Sebastian Rutka, Jesse Smatt, and LSU’s highly touted freshmen Jason Hazley and Peter Richman. The Tigers will be competing against some of the best tennis players in the nation as five of the country’s top-25 players are in the field.
In Thursday’s top half of the “A” flight singles draw, LSU’s Rutka is scheduled to face home-town favorite Johan Grunditz from Kentucky, Fisher will take on sophomore Trey Johnson of Florida and Smatt will compete against South Carolina’s Angelo Niculescu. Georgia’s eighth-ranked Brandon Wagner headlines the draw as the No. 1 seed and will face Vanderbilt’s Jens Frederickson in first-round action.
Four Tigers are located on the bottom half of the “A” flight singles draw.
LSU’s Kiernan enters the event as the 10th-seeded player and will take on Florida’s Troy Hahn, while the three remaining Tigers are scheduled to face highly seeded competition.
Hazley will take on Georgia’s sixth-seeded Lesley Joseph, Nicholson is set to play 12th-seeded Eleazar Magallan from Florida and Richman will face Auburn’s 13th-seeded Rameez Junaid. LSU’s Richman heads into the SEC Indoors with the Tigers’ best record on the season. The freshman from Toronto, Canada, compiled a 9-4 record during fall competition.
“There are a lot of tough competitors and great tennis players participating in this event this weekend,” Brown said. “It’s always a good experience for our younger players to go out and compete against some of the nation’s top players.”
In Thursday’s doubles competition, the Tigers’ combination of Rutka and Richman will take on South Carolina’s sixth-seeded pair of Niculescu and Westman in first-round action, while LSU’s Hazley and Smatt will compete against Kentucky’s Grunditz and Witten. The Tigers’ fourth-seeded duo of Kiernan and Fisher open the tournament against Gostek and Mitchell from Alabama.
The 15th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will kick off its spring season on Thursday at 8 a.m., as the Tigers compete in the SEC Indoor Championships at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, Ky.