BATON ROUGE — LSU earned its first win this season over a ranked opponent Monday, beating No. 71 Louisiana-Lafayette 5-2.
“ULL showed that hey have good players at all five positions,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown, who had anticipated a tough match. “They come to play every day. This was a good win for us.”
The No. 15 Tigers (5-0) swept the doubles matches to take an early lead.
Jason Hazley and Bryan Fisher, the Tigers 35th-ranked tandem, beat the Cajun’s tough No. 1 duo of Eveghnii Corduneanu and Amanjot Singh.
Danny Bryan and Cory Ross improved to 13-1 with a win at No. 3 singles and Ken Skupski and Sebastian Rutka won at No. 2.
In singles, LSU’s 33rd-ranked Skupski quickly put away Singh at the No. 1 position. Hazley followed suit with a win at the No. 3 spot over Marc Castellana.
Rutka clinched the match with a hard-fought 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win over Ivan Kovalev.
LSU’s Peter Richman almost pulled out a big win over 88th-ranked Corduneaunu at No. 2 singles. Richman won the first set, 7-5 but fell in the second set, 6-2 and allowed Corduneaunu to escape with a win in the tiebreaker. It was Richman’s first loss in over a month.
Fellow Tiger Cory Ross also suffered his first loss of the dual season in a long match with Shawn Ellison. Ellison jumped out to an early lead in the tiebreaker to win, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 1-0 (5).
Bryan Fisher won his tiebreaker match against Robin Ley, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4.
The win marked the Tiger’s 80th consecutive victory over in-state opponents. It was the last leg of a five-match home stand before the Tigers hit the road to take on 20th-ranked Texas next Saturday.
#15 LSU 5, #71 Louisiana-Lafayette 2
Singles competition:
1. #33 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Amanjot Singh (ULL) 6-3, 6-2
2. Evghenni Corduneaunu (ULL) def. Peter Richman (LSU) 5-7, 6-2, 1-0 (10-6)
3. Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Marc Castellana (ULL) 6-2, 6-4
4. Bryan Fisher (LSU) def. Robin Ley (ULL) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
5. Shawn Ellison (ULL) def. Cory Ross (LSU) 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 1-0 (10-5)
6. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Ivan Kovalev (ULL) 6-3, 7-6 (8-6)
Doubles competition:
1. #35 Bryan Fisher/Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Amanjot Singh/Evghenni Cordeaunu (ULL) 8-4
2. Sebastian Rutka/Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Robin Ley/Shawn Ellison (ULL) 8-6
3. Danny Bryan/Cory Ross (LSU) def. Ivan Kovalev/Marc Castellana (ULL) 8-4
Match Notes:
LSU 5-0; National ranking #15
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (1,3,6,5,2,4)