BATON ROUGE — LSU slipped to 17th in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association poll released Tuesday, but they will get the chance to improve their status when they welcome 13th-ranked Texas A&M to W.T. Robinson Stadium Wednesday at 2 p.m.
“We look forward to the challenge,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “Texas A&M is a strong team. They’ve been ranked in the top 15 for the last four or five years.”
The dip in the rankings comes from the Tigers’ split in the opening weekend of SEC play. They lost, 4-3 to then 21st-ranked Georgia Friday. The Bulldogs moved up to 18th in this week’s poll.
LSU recovered Sunday with a 4-3 win over 39th-ranked Tennessee. The Volunteers moved up to 28th this week.
“We step out of the SEC this week, but it’s a chance to improve and build on the Tennessee win,” Brown said. “Texas A&M has some guys who are ranked near the top and they have some talented singles players.”
The Tigers will have to overcome the Aggies’ highly ranked lineup, which includes the No. 1-ranked duo of Ante Matjevic and Lester Cook and No. 37-ranked Marvin Rolle and Brett Joelson.
LSU will counter the doubles teams with their own ranked pair, No. 20 Jason Hazley and Bryan Fisher. Peter Richman and Ken Skupski are the likely candidates to face Rolle and Joelson. Richman and Skupski are undefeated at No. 2 doubles this season.
In singles, Skupski moved up to No. 58 in singles after his win over Tennessee’s Simon Rea. Skupski and the other Tigers at the top of the singles lineup face the Aggies 10th-ranked Matjevic and 21st-ranked Cook.
LSU’s other Southeastern Conference opponents shifted in this week’s poll. Kentucky and Vanderbilt moved ahead of the Tigers to the No. 15 and No. 16 spots. Ole Miss remained No. 2 and Florida fell to No. 10. Alabama was the only SEC team to fall out of the top 25, but Mississippi State moved up 16 spots to No. 27.