BATON ROUGE — The No. 24-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will begin the SEC portion of its schedule at home Friday against 33rd-ranked Tennessee at 2 p.m. at W. T. Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The Tigers (7-4) are coming off of back-to-back, 4-3, losses and are looking to rebound against 5-1 Tennessee. The match will be pivotal for boosting LSU off to a good start in the conference and getting a shot at an SEC West Title.
“We’re really excited to get to finally get SEC play started,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “Tennessee continues to be a big rival for us. We always have competitive matches with them and this one shouldn’t be any different.”
LSU holds a 27-21-1 edge in the all-time series with the Volunteers. However, it was Tennessee who took last year’s contest in Knoxville, 4-3.
While the Volunteers do not boast any ranked singles players or doubles teams, they do feature a lot of depth. Tennessee’s only loss came on the road, 5-2, to an Ohio State team that also defeated LSU. The trip to Baton Rouge will be the Volunteers first match away from home since that loss.
“We know this team and we know what they can do,” said Brown. “We’re just going to go out there and show them our best game.”
After facing Tennessee, the Tigers will remain at home and take on perennial powerhouse and currently No. 1-ranked Georgia on Sunday at 1 p.m.