BATON ROUGE — The 15th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team is eager to begin its Southeastern Conference schedule on Friday, as the Tigers face the No. 22-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide on the road in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“Alabama is a very experienced team, they are an SEC team and we’re playing them on the road,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “In men’s tennis, whenever you play a quality team on the road it takes a very good effort to beat them. We’re going to have to play some of our best tennis tomorrow in order to get the win.”
LSU heads into its first conference match of the season with a 3-1 overall record. The Tigers cruised to non-conference victories over Centenary, Southern and New Mexico to open the season before falling on the road to No. 1-ranked Illinois.
In its most recent match of the season, the LSU men’s tennis team gave Illinois a 5-2 scare in Champaign, Ill., in which the Tigers were winning on four of the six singles matches at one point.
The Crimson Tide is set to defend its home territory on Friday at the Alabama Varsity Courts. Alabama enters its first SEC contest of the season with a 7-2 overall record and a 5-0 mark at home. The Crimson Tide’s two losses both came on the road against Southern Methodist, 5-2, and Ohio State, 4-3.
In last season’s annual contest between the two Western Division rivals, LSU dropped the Crimson Tide, 5-2, in Tuscaloosa, Ala. The Tide would eventually get revenge on the Tigers in the SEC Tournament, as Alabama upset LSU in the opening round of the event, 4-3. LSU leads the all-time series versus the Crimson Tide by a count of 32-19-1.