BATON ROUGE — The 14th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team rebounded from their loss to No. 9 Florida by defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks, 4-1, Sunday at the W. T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
By earning victories at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, LSU (16-5, 7-4 SEC) has won the doubles point in 10 consecutive matches.
“We’ve established that we are able to get that point,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “As the pressure gets bigger, that point becomes more important.”
The 41st-ranked team of Cory Ross and Sebastian Rutka are now 11-0 in No. 2 doubles competition on the season. The match between the 26th-ranked duo of Bryan Fisher and Jason Hazley and South Carolina’s team of Geraldo Knorr and Pedro Rodrigues was suspended.
Peter Richman and Ross earned straight-set singles victories for the Tigers on courts No. 3 and No. 6. The match was clinched for LSU when 28th-ranked Ken Skupski defeated Marcus Westman in three sets on court No. 1.
Three Tiger seniors, Fisher, Rutka and Ross, were honored at the intermission between singles and doubles competition in the final home match of their LSU careers.
“You try not to make too much of it with them because sometimes it can be an emotional day for them,” said Brown. “You try to tell the other guys to fight hard for them. The guys fought hard and represented well, and they gave the seniors a good end to the regular season.”
LSU will return to action Thursday at the SEC Championships in Nashville, Tenn. The fifth-seeded Tigers will face 12th-seed Alabama at 8 a.m.
#14 LSU 4, South Carolina 1
Singles competition:
1. #28 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Marcus Westman (SC) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2
2. Tom Eklund (SC) def. Jason Hazley (LSU) 6-4, 7-5
3. Peter Richman (LSU) def. Carl Wermee (SC) 6-2, 6-3
4. Bryan Fisher (LSU) vs. Geraldo Knorr (SC) 6-7 (3-7), 6-6 (1-1), unfinished
5. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) vs. Ben Atkinson (SC) 5-7, 6-3, 3-2, unfinished
6. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Pedro Rodrigues (SC) 6-4, 6-2
Doubles competition:
1. #26 Bryan Fisher/Jason Hazley (LSU) vs. Geraldo Knorr/Pedro Rodrigues (SC) 5-5, unfinished
2. #41 Cory Ross/Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Marcus Westman/Tom Eklund (SC) 8-3
3. Ken Skupski/Danny Bryan (LSU) def. Ben Atkinson/Carl Wermee (SC) 8-5