BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team lost to the No. 1-ranked Georgia Bulldogs on Sunday, as the Tigers were outscored, 4-0, at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“We’re disappointed in the loss, but we just have to move on and get prepared for Southern Miss on Wednesday,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “Georgia is an extremely talented team and we were playing them tough in a lot of matches, so we’ll just build from this and continue to work hard in practice.”
With the loss, the Tigers fell to 3-8 on the season and 0-6 in Southeastern Conference play. All eight of LSU’s losses have come against opponents ranked among the top 25. Georgia won its 10th-consecutive match on Sunday and improved its overall record to 15-1. The Bulldogs own an undefeated 6-0 record against conference opponents.
Georgia took an early 1-0 lead in the contest by winning the doubles point.
The Bulldogs’ tandem of Nic Boeker and Brandon Wagner defeated LSU’s combination of Bryan Fisher and Jesse Smatt, 8-5, on court No. 2, while Georgia’s 16th-ranked pair of Mattias Boeker and Bo Hodge clinched the point by knocking off the Tigers’ Dan Kiernan and Jason Hazley on court No. 1, 9-7.
In singles play, the top-ranked Bulldogs earned identical 6-3, 6-3 wins on the top-three courts. 48th-ranked Mattias Boeker was victorious over LSU’s Peter Richman on court No. 1, 11th-ranked Brandon Wagner dropped the Tigers’ Kiernan on court No. 2 and 56th-ranked Lesley Joseph defeated Smatt on court No. 3.
The Bulldogs clinched the victory with the three singles wins and the remaining matches were suspended due to time constraints.
The LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Wednesday, as the Tigers host Southern Miss at 2 p.m. in a non-conference duel at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
#1 Georgia 4, LSU 0
Doubles
1. #16 M. Boeker/Hodge (UGA) def. Kiernan/Hazley, 9-7.
2. N. Boeker/Wagner (UGA) def. Fisher/Smatt, 8-5.
3. Ross/Rutka (LSU) vs. Joseph/Timu, suspended.
Singles
1. #48 Mattias Boeker (UGA) def. Peter Richman, 6-3, 6-3.
2. #11 Brandon Wagner (UGA) def. Dan Kiernan, 6-3, 6-3.
3. #56 Lesley Joseph (UGA) def. Jesse Smatt, 6-3, 6-3.
4. Bryan Fisher (LSU) vs. #73 Bo Hodge, suspended.
5. Jason Hazley (LSU) vs. Nic Boeker, suspended.
6. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) vs. Stephan Timu, suspended.