BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team picked up a big conference win Friday, taking advantage of South Carolina injuries and burying the Gamecocks, 7-0.
“South Carolina is a talented team and this really was a lot closer than the score showed,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We took advantage of a couple of injuries, but that’s the way things go. We’ve had to deal with those ourselves.”
LSU (11-6, 3-2 SEC) jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. The Tigers kicked off the match by sweeping the Gamecocks in the doubles matches.
The pair of Danny Bryan and Colt Gaston and duo of Paul White and James Cluskey both cruised to easy wins on courts two and three, clinching the doubles point for LSU.
The most competitive match came on the No. 1 court where the 12th-ranked tandem of Ken Skupski and Mark Growcott picked up a win over South Carolina’s 22nd-ranked Jaime Cuellar and Tom Eklund, 8-5
The Tigers worked quickly in singles play as well, winning three matches in straight sets to clinch the victory.
Skupski was off the court first, taking the first set from South Carolina’s Tom Eklund, 6-2, before Eklund was forced to withdraw due to injury.
Likewise Cluskey made quick work of his opposition on the No. 5 court, dropping Thomas Stoddard, 6-1, 6-2, in straight sets and putting the Tigers up 3-0.
It was Growcott who picked up the clincher and sealed the win for LSU when he finished off the Gamecock’s Pedro Rodrigues, 6-1, 6-3.
The final three matches all went to third sets, but with the overall match decided those third sets were actually played as first to 10 super tiebreakers.
Gaston and Bryan both picked up wins in their tiebreakers and, freshman Jose Moncada picked up the first dual match win of his career, beating Adam Adler, 4-6, 6-2, 10-6.
LSU will try to keep its momentum going Sunday when it hosts No. 8-ranked Florida at 1 p.m. at W. T. Robinson Tennis Stadium.
#19 LSU 7, South Carolina 0
Singles
1. Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Tom Eklund (USC) 6-2, 1-1 Eklund withdrew
2. Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Jaime Cuellar (USC) 6-1, 2-6, (10-6) third set super tiebreak
3. Mark Growcott (LSU) def. Pedro Rodrigues (USC) 6-1, 6-3
4. Danny Bryan (LSU) def. Yevgeny Supeko (USC) 6-3, 5-7, 10-5 third set super tiebreaker
5. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Thomas Stoddard (USC) 6-1, 6-2
6. Jose Moncada (LSU) def. Adam Adler (USC) 4-6, 6-2, 10-6 third set super tiebreaker
Order of Finish: 1,5,3,2,6,4
Doubles
1. Skupski/Growcott def. Cuellar/Ekland 8-5
2. Bryan/Gaston def. Rodrigues/Supeko 8-1
3. White/Cluskey def. Addler/Stoddard 8-2