BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team picked up a pair of convincing 7-0 victories over both Centenary and Southern on Saturday as the Tigers cruised to an early 2-0 record in dual-match play at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“I think that we were sharp in a lot of positions today,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “I was really pleased that we didn’t let the fact that the weather was freezing cold effect us at all, and we just kind of took care of business. We saw some good things out of a couple of the new guys and the older guys took care of business like we would expect, so it was encouraging for us today.”
With Saturday’s two shutout victories, LSU earned a perfect 2-0 record to begin a season for the 18th-consecutive year. The last time that the Tigers did not open a dual-match season with at least a 2-0 record was in 1984 when LSU fell to Georgia, 5-4, in its second match. The Tigers ended up finishing the season as the 12th-ranked team in the nation.
LSU remained undefeated against both Southern and Centenary on Saturday and upped its winning streak against in-state opponents to 74-straight matches.
The Tigers have not been beaten by a Louisiana rival since Tulane dropped them, 7-2, in the final match of the 1973 season.
In the opening match of the doubleheader, LSU played dominant tennis against Centenary and rallied for six, straight-set singles victories. The Tigers’ only relinquished a total of 14 games during the singles competition and were led by sophomore Jason Hazley who earned the match-clinching victory over Centenary’s Nathan Bridges, 6-1, 6-0.
Against Southern, LSU’s Bryan Fisher, Cory Ross, Paul White, Brandon Nicholson and Hazley each earned their second singles victory of the day. Ross, the Tigers’ junior from Littleton, Colo., improved his record to a team-leading 9-5 mark with a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Southern’s Tommy Pernell.
“Southern has done a great job of improving and in getting some talented players the past couple of years, so it’s a match that we can use to benefit our guys because they’re going against some good competition,” Brown said. “They’re pushing us in some of our sets and that’s good for us to compete against, especially early in the season.”
LSU’s 24th-ranked doubles tandem of Fisher and Hazley improved to 11-2 on the season with wins over Centenary’s duo of Nathan Bridges and Caleb Ashley, 8-0, and Southern’s combination of Alex Hidalgo and Benjamin Noube, 8-2. Last week, Fisher and Hazley were crowned the 2003 Southeastern Conference Indoor champions after winning five-straight matches at the Racquet Club of the South in Atlanta, Ga.
The LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Saturday, Feb. 1, as the Tigers host both Texas-San Antonio and Southern in a twilight doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium. Admission is free to all LSU home tennis matches.
LSU def. Centenary, 7-0
Doubles
1. #24 Fisher/Hazley (LSU) def. Bridges/Ashley (CC), 8-0
2. Ross/Nicholson (LSU) def. Roberts/Pinto (CC), 8-3
3. White/Corazza (LSU) def. Matter/Okura (CC), 8-0
Singles
1. #124 Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Nathan Bridges (CC), 6-1, 6-0
2. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Caleb Ashley (CC), 6-1, 6-1
3. #101 Bryan Fisher (LSU) def. Brian Roberts (CC), 6-0, 6-1
4. Paul White (LSU) def. Charlie Matters (CC), 6-2, 6-1
5. Brandon Nicholson (LSU) def. Josh Pinto (CC), 6-3, 6-1
6. Rafael Corazza (LSU) def. Kyle Khoury (CC), 6-3, 6-1
LSU def. Southern, 7-0
Doubles
1. #24 Fisher/Hazley (LSU) def. Hidalgo/Noube (SU), 8-2
2. #53 Ross/Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Pipkins/Date (SU), 8-0
3. White/Richman (LSU) def. Pernell/Christopher Williams (SU), 8-1
Singles
1. Peter Richman (LSU) def. Alex Hidalgo (SU), 6-1, 6-3
2. #124 Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Benjamin Noube (SU), 6-1, 6-0
3. #101 Bryan Fisher (LSU) def. Michael Date (SU), 6-2, 6-2
4. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Tommie Pernell (SU), 6-2, 6-2
5. Paul White (LSU) def. Alejandro Galindo (SU), 6-0, 6-2
6. Brandon Nicholson (LSU) def. Greg Pipkins (LSU), 6-3, 6-3
Overall Records: LSU 2-0, Centenary 0-2, Southern 0-1