BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 13th-ranked men’s tennis team cruised to 6-1 win Sunday over 26th-ranked Mississippi State with victories on all three doubles courts and five of six singles courts.
“It was good to win, but it was more important that everybody on the court was competing hard,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown.
The Tigers (11-3, 3-3) responded to a tough loss earlier in the week against fourth-ranked Ole Miss.
“I felt like we were missing something against Ole Miss,” Brown said. “I didn’t feel like people were fully investing themselves in the match.
“Today, everybody came out and committed and gave themselves a chance to win Everybody did that, and out of that we had four or five guys play pretty well. The guys who didn’t have their best day were still out there and had a chance to win.”
LSU’s 34th-ranked doubles team of Ken Skupski and Peter Richman won on court No. 3. Cory Ross and Sebastian Rutka topped Mississippi State’s 50th-ranked Romain Ambert and Florent Girod on court No. 2 to clinch the doubles point. No. 23-ranked Bryan Fisher and Jason Hazley completed the Tigers’ doubles sweep with a 9-8 (5) win on court No. 1.
Ross and Richman earned quick singles wins on courts No. 5 and No. 4. Skupsi, LSU’s 28th-ranked freshman, beat Jose-Carlos Pinto at No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-3, to clinch the match for the Tigers.
The Tigers had already won the match before Misssippi State got on the board with Max Fomine’s win over Fisher on court No. 3.
Rutka and Hazley both won tiebreaker sets to ice LSU’s biggest win in nearly a month.
LSU will face its next five opponents on the road, beginning with a crucial SEC series next weekend against Auburn and Alabama.
#13 LSU 6, #26 Mississippi State 1
Singles competition:
1. #28 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Jose-Carlos Pinto (MSU) 6-1, 6-3
2. Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Luiz Carvalho (MSU) 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (13-11)
3. Max Fomine (MSU) def. Bryan Fisher (LSU) 7-5, 6-3
4. Peter Richman (LSU) def. Florent Girod (MSU) 6-0, 6-4
5. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Arnaud Roussel (MSU) 6-1, 6-2
6. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Romain Provenzano (MSU) 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (7-4)
Doubles competition:
1. #23 Bryan Fisher/Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Luiz Carvalho/Jose-Carlos Pinto (MSU) 9-8 (7-5)
2. Cory Ross/Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. #50 Romain Ambert/Florent Girod (MSU) 8-4
3. #34 Ken Skupski/Peter Richman (LSU) def. Matt Armstrong/Romain Provenzano (MSU) 8-3
Match Notes:
Mississippi State 7-7, 2-4; National ranking #26
LSU 11-3, 3-3; National ranking #13
Clinchers: Doubles (2) Match (1)
Order of Finish: Doubles (3,2,1) Singles (5,4,1,3,2,6)