BATON ROUGE — The LSU men?s tennis team notched the No. 16 national ranking on Wednesday, as the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings was released by ITAtennis.com.
“Well, we’re not ready to be the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, and we’re not No. 30, so I guess that being No. 16 is a good place to be right now,” said LSU’s fifth-year head coach Jeff Brown. “In order to be a No. 1 seed in your region you have to finish in the top 16, and in order to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament you have to be in the top 12, so I think we’re in a good position to achieve those goals.”
LSU currently owns an undefeated 2-0 record on the season as the Tigers defeated both Centenary and Southern in an opening-season doubleheader on Saturday. The LSU men?s tennis team dropped Centenary by a score of 7-0 and then pounded Southern, 6-0.
The Tigers finished the 2000-01 season as the 13th-ranked team in the country after accumulating a 16-8 dual-match record and defeating both Marist and Texas to advance to the NCAA Championships. The LSU men’s tennis team has reached the Sweet 16 in 17 of the last 18 seasons.
The Southeastern Conference dominated Wednesday’s Intercollegiate Association Rankings as eight of the SEC’s 12 teams were ranked in the nation’s top 25.
Georgia, the defending national champion, earned all eight of the first-place votes and led Stanford, UCLA, Tennessee and Ole Miss in the top five.
Mississippi State came in ranked No. 15, while Auburn was No. 19, Alabama was No. 22 and Kentucky earned the No. 23 spot in the national poll.
“We have a very tough road ahead of us,” Brown said. “The SEC is once again extremely strong this season, and 10 of our opponents are ranked in the top 25. Despite facing tough competition week in and week out, I think that playing a rather difficult schedule will help us in the long run this year.”
LSU is scheduled to play sixth-ranked Illinois on the road in Champaign, Ill., and 14th-ranked Texas A&M at home this season in its non-conference schedule. The Tigers fell to Texas A&M, 4-2, in the third round of the NCAA Championships last season.
The 16th-ranked LSU men?s tennis team will next be in action on Feb. 10, as the Tigers face the New Mexico Lobos at 1 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.