LEXINGTON, Ky. — LSU’s No. 10 ranked men’s tennis team will see its first action of 2006 Friday at the SEC Coaches Indoor Championship in Lexington, Ky.
All 12 Southeastern Conference teams will participate in the final individual tournament before the start of the dual season. The SEC has eight teams ranked in the ITA top-25, including No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Georgia and No. 6 Ole Miss.
Ninth-year LSU head coach Jeff Brown said he is excited to see his team get back into action and prepare for the upcoming dual match season.
“We’re really excited to go out and compete again,” said Brown. “The SEC is such a good conference and this tournament is an important step in preparing us for team play.”
LSU was originally scheduled to host the event in New Orleans. However, due to the circumstances surrounding Hurricane Katrina, the tournament is being hosted by Kentucky and held at the Hillary J. Boone Tennis Complex.
Highlighting Friday’s match-ups will be the season debut of 10th-ranked doubles tandem Ken Skupski and Mark Growcott, who received the tournament’s No. 2 seed. The pair will square off with Nester Briceno and Stefan Tell of Florida at 6:00 p.m.
LSU’s No. 24 ranked doubles team of Danny Bryan and Colt Gaston received the tournament’s fourth seed and will play Greg Anderson and Shane Collins of Kentucky at 5:30 p.m.
Several Tiger teams will face stiff competition Friday. Martel Campbell and Kevin Dessauer will be tasked with facing the tournament’s No. 1 seeded team, in Georgia’s Colin Purcell and Strahinja Bobusic. Senior Paul White and freshman James Cluskey will team up to play defending national champions John Isner and Antonio Ruiz, also from Georgia.
On the singles side Skupski, the 10th seed, will play Terence Nugent of Auburn at 2 p.m.
“We hope to go out there and pick up some quality wins this weekend,” said Brown. “This weekend will tell us where we stand with some of the best teams in the country and let us no what we need to work on.”
SEC Coaches Indoor Championship
Friday, January 20, 2006
Singles
Round of 64
Danny Bryan (LSU) vs. Josh Varela (UGA) 12:30 p.m.
Paul White (LSU) vs. Nate Emge (Kentucky) 12:30 p.m.
#66 (10) Ken Skupski (LSU) vs. Terence Nugent (Auburn) 2 p.m.
Martel Campbell (LSU) vs. Evan Dufaux (Vanderbilt) 2 p.m.
Colt Gaston (LSU) vs. Ricardo Gonzalez (UGA) 2:30 p.m.
Mark Growcott (LSU) vs. #64 (9) Ryan Preston (Vanderbilt) 3:00 p.m.
James Cluskey (LSU) vs. Rawl Martin (Tennessee) 4:00 p.m.
Jose Moncada (LSU) vs. TBA
Kevin Dessauer (LSU) vs. TBA
Eric DeRoche (LSU) vs. TBA
Doubles
Round of 32
Campbell/Dessauer (LSU) vs. #6 (1) Bobusic/Purcell (UGA) 5:30 p.m.
#24 (4) Bryan/Gaston (LSU) vs. Anderson/Collins (Kentucky) 5:30 p.m.
White/Cluskey (LSU) vs. (8) Isner/Ruiz (UGA) 6:30 p.m.
#10 (2) Skupski/Growcott (LSU) vs. Briceno/Tell (Florida) 6:00 p.m.