KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The 20th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team recorded its first road victory of the 2003 dual-match season on Sunday as the Tigers upended the Tennessee Volunteers, 4-3, at the UT Tennis Courts in Knoxville, Tenn.
With the overall score of the match knotted at 3-3, LSU’s Paul White recovered from a first-set deficit to rally for a critical 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Tennessee’s Raul Martin on court No. 6. White’s three-set win clinched the Tigers’ first road triumph of the season and upped the freshman’s overall record to 12-9 on the season.
LSU (8-4, 2-3) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in Friday’s Southeastern Conference matchup as the Tigers registered wins on two of the three doubles courts to earn the vital doubles point.
On court No. 1, LSU’s 16th-ranked tandem of Bryan Fisher and Jason Hazley got things started with a spirited 8-5 victory over the Volunteers’ 50th-ranked tandem of Mark Dietrich and Wade Orr. With the win, Fisher and Hazley notched their third victory over a top-50 ranked opponent and upped their overall record on the season to 17-6.
Tennessee’s No. 3 doubles combination picked up an 8-5 win of their own to even the competition at 1-1 before the Tigers’ tandem of Cory Ross and Sebastian Rutka clinched the opening point of the contest. In what turned out to be the deciding match of the doubles contest, LSU’s Ross and Rutka held on for a critical 8-6 victory over Tennessee’s pair of Simon Rea and Mark Henderson.
Rutka, the Tigers’ speedy native of Krakow, Poland, gave LSU a quick 2-0 lead in the contest by earning a straight-set victory over Orr, 6-1, 6-2, on court No. 4. The win snapped Rutka’s two-match losing streak and improved his overall record on the season to 12-7.
After a Tennessee victory on court No. 1, LSU’s Ross upped the Tigers’ lead to 3-1 with a 7-6(5), 6-3 win over Henderson on court No. 5. Ross, who leads the team in singles victories with 17, improved his dual-match record to 10-2 on the season.
With the loss, the 26th-ranked Volunteers fell to an overall record of 7-6 and dropped to a 1-4 mark against conference opponents. Tennessee is scheduled to host the 18th-ranked Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The 20th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Sunday, as the Tigers remain on the road and challenge the defending SEC champion Georgia Bulldogs at 1 p.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
#20 LSU (8-4, 2-3 SEC) def. Tennessee (7-6, 1-4 SEC), 4-3
Doubles
1. #16 Fisher/Hazley (LSU) def. #50 Dietrich/Orr (UT), 8-5
2. Ross/Rutka (LSU) def. Rea/Henderson (UT), 8-6
3. Martin/Perna (UT) def. Richman/White (LSU), 8-5
Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles
1. #31 Simon Rea (UT) def. Jason Hazley (LSU), 6-2, 6-3
2. #75 Mark Dietrich (UT) def. #51 Peter Richman (LSU), 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
3. Vincent Perna (UT) def. Bryan Fisher (LSU), 7-6(4), 6-4
4. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Wade Orr (UT), 6-1, 6-2
5. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Mark Henderson (UT), 7-6(5), 6-3
6. Paul White (LSU) def. Raul Martin (UT), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
Order of Finish: 4, 1, 5, 2, 3, 6