BATON ROUGE — The 23rd-ranked LSU men’s tennis team notched its biggest win of the 2003 dual-match season on Sunday as the Tigers upended No. 17 Auburn, 6-1, at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“We came out and got off to a really good start in doubles play,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We earned early breaks on courts No. 1 and No. 3, and the momentum that we gained by winning the doubles point carried over into our singles play. We actually didn’t play that much better than we did against Alabama, but that’s just how tough the SEC is going to be this year. It really just depends on the matchups to see who’s going to win.”
With LSU leading the overall score of the match 3-1, Bryan Fisher rallied to a three-set victory over Auburn’s Markus Schiller on court No. 4. The 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 win proved to be the match-clincher and gave LSU its first Southeastern Conference victory of the season. Fisher, the Tigers’ junior native of Nashville, Tenn., improved to 7-2 in dual-match play.
“We came out and played well with good attitudes and kept the momentum,” Brown said. “That’s definitely the key and we just have to come and show up every time that we play.”
LSU (7-2, 1-1 SEC) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Sunday as the Tigers registered two victories in doubles play to earn the crucial doubles point.
After LSU’s 14th-ranked combination of Fisher and Jason Hazley defeated Auburn’s duo of Andy Columbo and Tom George, 8-3, on court No. 1, the Bayou Bengals’ tandem of Peter Richman and Paul White breezed to an 8-2 doubles-point-clinching win on court No. 3. With the triumph, Fisher and Hazley moved to a 15-3 overall record on the season.
The Fighting Tigers cruised to a 3-0 lead in the contest with straight-set singles wins on courts No. 5 and No. 6.
On court No. 5, LSU’s White, a highly-touted freshman from Lake Charles, La., handily defeated George, 6-4, 6-2, while the Tigers’ Cory Ross dropped
Auburn’s Rodrigo Minozzo, 6-4, 6-3, in the No. 6 singles contest. With the victory, Ross extended his winning streak to 10-consecutive matches and improved to 16-5 on the season.
“I felt that we had some experience down at the bottom half of our lineup with Cory and Bryan and they each played very well today and got off to good starts,” said Brown. “Cory was able to finish his match quickly, which was key, and then Bryan got the clinching victory and we had our freshman (White) play very well against their freshman (George) and get a win on No. 5.”
Auburn (7-2, 1-1 SEC) recorded its lone victory of Sunday’s Western Divisional rivalry at the No. 1 singles position where 24th-ranked Rameez Junaid beat LSU’s No. 47 Richman, 6-4, 6-4. Junaid’s straight-set victory avenged an earlier loss to Richman at the SEC Indoor Championships. Richman won the first contest, 6-7(2), 6-1, 6-2.
The 23rd-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Friday, March 7, as the Tigers travel to Columbia, S.C., to take on the 20th-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks at 1 p.m.
#23 LSU (7-2, 1-1) def. #17 Auburn (7-2, 1-1), 6-1
Doubles
1. #14 Fisher/Hazley (LSU) def. Colombo/George (AU), 8-3
2. #40 Ross/Rutka (LSU) vs. #39 Junaid/Minozzo (AU), susp.
3. Richman/White (LSU) def. Pelva/Schiller (AU), 8-2*
Order of finish: 1, 3
Singles
1. #24 Rameez Junaid (AU) def. #47 Peter Richman (LSU), 6-4, 6-4
2. Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Andy Colombo (AU), 6-4, 3-6, 5-1(ret.)
3. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Gabor Zoltan Pelva (AU), 6-3, 5-7, 6-3
4. Bryan Fisher (LSU) def. Markus Schiller (AU), 6-3, 2-6, 6-1*
5. Paul White (LSU) def. Tom George (AU), 6-4, 6-2
6. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Rodrigo Minozzo (AU), 6-4, 6-3
Order of finish: 5, 6, 1, 4, 2, 3
*Denotes clinching match