BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 18th-ranked doubles team comprised of Bryan Fisher and Jason Hazley qualified for the 2003 NCAA Doubles Championships on Thursday as the prestigious field of 32 was announced by the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship Committee in Indianapolis, Ind.
The 2003 NCAA Doubles Championships, held at the venerable Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga., is a five-round single-elimination tournament consisting of the top-32 doubles teams in the nation. The annual event, which will crown the eventual national champion, is being held simultaneously with the 2003 NCAA Singles Championships beginning on Saturday, May 24.
The Tigers’ doubles combination of Fisher and Hazley will head into the prestigious postseason tournament as the defending Southeastern Conference Indoor Champions.
The LSU pair reeled off five-straight victories over highly-competitive opponents at the 2002 SEC Indoor Champioships and currently owns a 21-10 overall record on the season. Fisher and Hazley finished the regular season with three wins over top-50 ranked opponents, including an 8-4 victory over Tulsa’s Ryan Livesay and Dustin Taylor on Feb. 22.
In singles play, LSU’s 62nd-ranked Peter Richman was named as an alternative to the 64-player field of the 2003 Men’s Tennis Singles Championships. If any of the current 64 players qualified for the tournament are unable to participate, Richman will fill in and compete for the nation’s singles championship also being held at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Saturday, May 10, as the Tigers face off against the South Alabama Jaguars in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament held at the Goldring Tennis Stadium on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans.