BATON ROUGE — The 12th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will try to rebound from its first loss of the season Sunday when they play host to 39th-ranked Tennessee at 1 p.m.
The Tigers (7-1 0-1) are coming off Friday’s 4-3 defeat at the hands of No. 21 Georgia, a loss LSU head coach Jeff Brown hopes will motivate his team as they try for their first Southeastern Conference win.
“We learned some lessons [against Georgia] that might help us get ready for Tennessee,” Brown said. “They are coming off of two good wins over top-25 teams so I’m sure they’re felling good about themselves.”
Tennessee (6-2, 1-0) has recorded big upsets in its last two matches. They beat sixth-ranked Duke two weeks ago and defeated No. 25 Arkansas on the road Friday. The Arkansas win was the Vols’ first road victory in almost two years.
“In the SEC you know you have to separate these matches and take care of your opportunities to win,” Brown said.
LSU’s Ken Skupski, Peter Richman and Jason Hazley suffered singles losses at the top of the lineup in the Georgia match, but bouncing back against Tennessee’s top players will be difficult. The Vols feature 37th-ranked senior Simon Rea and 94th-ranked freshman Ockie Oosthuizen.
LSU’s 13th-ranked doubles team of Hazley and Bryan Fisher suffered its only loss of the dual season Friday, but the other two duos of Richman and Skupski and 21st-ranked Cory Ross and Danny Bryan kept their dual records perfect.