DALLAS — The 18th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will close out its 2003 regular season on Monday as the Tigers face off with the Southern Methodist Mustangs at 2 p.m. at the Haggar Tennis Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
“This is a match that was originally scheduled for earlier in the season,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We decided to postpone it because our guys would have been missing too much school, but now is a perfect time for it. We’re on spring break this week and it will also act as a good competitive match that will keep us sharp for the SEC Tournament.”
LSU heads into Monday’s non-conference matchup with an overall record of 12-8 on the season and a 2-5 mark in road contests. The Tigers’ two victories away from home this season came against Southeastern Conference foes in Tennessee and Mississippi State.
On Saturday, LSU blanked its SEC Western Division rival Arkansas, 7-0, in Baton Rouge to close out its conference schedule. The victory proved to be LSU’s third sweep of the 2003 season and its first against an SEC opponent since 2000. The win also marked the Tigers’ biggest margin of victory over the Razorbacks since the 1999 season.
Southern Methodist enters the late-season contest with an 11-9 overall record on the season and a 9-3 mark at home at the Haggar Tennis Stadium. On Friday, the Mustangs were defeated by their Metroplex-rival Texas Christian, 6-1, for the second time this year. SMU was dropped by Texas Christian by an identical 6-1 score earlier in the season.
“SMU is a very good team and they have a lot of talented players that can make some things happen,” Brown said. “They beat us the last two times that we’ve played them and they traditionally play well against us. We just have to come out and play with the same amount of intensity that we did versus Arkansas.”
LSU trails Southern Methodist in the all-time series standings by a count of 7-5. The Mustangs have been victorious in both the 2001 and 2002 seasons with wins of 4-2 and 4-3, respectively.