BATON ROUGE — LSU’s 10th ranked men’s tennis team continued their winning ways Wednesday and pushed their record to 4-0 with wins over Nicholls and Southern.
Paul White, the Tigers’ No. 6 singles player, had an exceptional match against the Colonels. White and doubles partner James Cluskey defeated Alexandru Sil and Denis Borisevich 8-2. White then bested singles opponent Tyler Thompson, 6-0, 6-0, without surrendering a point in entire first set.
Despite being dominated for most of the contest Nicholls was able to snatch one singles victory from the Tigers before falling 6-1.
However, LSU head coach Jeff Brown felt the Nicholls match would be helpful in preparing the Tigers for the tough schedule ahead.
“Any time a team comes out and pushes you like that it kind of rings your head a little,” said Brown. “Hopefully this will let the guys know you always have to bring your best game and inspire us to continue to work hard in practice.”
LSU blew past Southern in the latter match, shutting out the Jaguars, 7-0.
White and Cluskey continued to dominate the doubles court against the Jaguars, easily handling Southern’s pair of Christopher Williams and Bino Rasedisa, 8-0.
Cluskey followed up by blanking Rasedisa, 6-0, 6-0, on the singles court. Fellow Tiger Jonathan Tragardh also made quick work of his Jaguar foe, Elvis Espinal, winning 6-0, 6-0, in straight sets.
LSU’s No. 66 ranked Ken Skupski picked up two more wins Wednesday, now putting his consecutive win total at 13.
LSU will not return home until Feb. 23 when they face Clemson. In the meantime the Tigers will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan on Feb. 10 to take on the No. 48 ranked Wolverines and Columbus, Ohio on Feb. 12 to face No. 18 Ohio State.
“We have some tough matches coming up here,” said Brown. “Michigan and Ohio State are both ranked teams, but we’ve got some good matches under our belt and that should help to segue us into this tough stretch schedule coming up.”
Tennis Match Results
Nicholls vs LSU
Feb 01, 2006 at Baton Rouge, La.
#10 LSU 6, Nicholls 1
Singles competition
1. #66 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Sebastian Normand (NICHOLLS) 6-2, 6-2
2. Vlad-Lucian Popa (NICHOLLS) def. Mark Growcott (LSU) 5-7, 6-4, 10-5
3. Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Alexandru Sil (NICHOLLS) 6-2, 6-4
4. Danny Bryan (LSU) def. Denis Borisevich (NICHOLLS) 6-2, 6-0
5. Martel Campbell (LSU) def. Ricardo van Bolderic (NICHOLLS) 6-4, 6-3
6. Paul White (LSU) def. Tyler Thompson (NICHOLLS) 6-0, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. #10 Mark Growcott/Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Vlad-Lucian Popa/Sebastian Normand (NICHOLLS) 8-5
2. Paul White/James Cluskey (LSU) def. Alexandru Sil/Denis Borisevich (NICHOLLS) 8-2
3. #24 Danny Bryan/Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Ricardo van Bolderic/Tyler Thompson (NICHOLLS) 8-1
Nicholls 0-1
LSU 3-0
Southern vs LSU
Feb 01, 2006 at Baton Rouge, La.
#10 LSU 7, Southern 0
Singles competition
1. Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Marlon Giche (SOUTHERN) 6-2, 6-2
2. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Bino Rasedisa (SOUTHERN) 6-0, 6-0
3. Kevin Dessauer (LSU) def. Justin Worthy (SOUTHERN) 6-0, 6-1
4. Eric DeRoche (LSU) def. Christopher Williams (SOUTHERN) 6-2, 6-1
5. Jonathan Tragardh (LSU) def. Elvis Espinal (SOUTHERN) 6-0, 6-0
6. Jose Moncada (LSU) def. Paul DeRousselle (SOUTHERN) 6-1, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. James Cluskey/Paul White (LSU) def. Christopher Williams/Bino Rasedisa (SOUTHERN) 8-0
2. Eric DeRoche/Jose Moncada (LSU) def. Marlon Giche/Elvis Espinal (SOUTHERN) 8-2
3. Jonathan Tragardh/Kevin Dessauer (LSU) def. Paul DeRousselle/Justin Worthy (SOUTHERN) 8-2
Southern 0-2
LSU 4-0