BATON ROUGE — The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will look to pull off a second straight win over a top-10 opponent Friday when the Tigers host No. 8-ranked Ole Miss at 2 p.m.
LSU dropped then eighth-ranked Florida 4-3 last Sunday. Friday the Tigers will try to do the same against the Rebels. A win would give LSU a lead in the SEC West race going into the latter half it conference schedule.
“We’re going to go into this match with the same mindset we had last weekend,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “This is a top-10 team and this is a chance for us to pick up another big win.”
The Tigers will need to bring their best game again, as Ole Miss features one of the SEC’s better lineups.
The Rebels’ No. 1 singles Erling Tveit is currently ranked 16th and holds a 5-1 record in the SEC this year. Tveit will face off will face off with the Tigers’ No. 22-ranked Ken Skupski, who has won seven of his last nine singles matches and is five of six in the conference.
The No. 1 singles match should feature and intense battle. LSU’s 14th-ranked pair of Skupski and partner Mark Growcott are slated to face the Rebels’ No. 12-ranked duo of Eric Cleason and Tveit.
The Tigers have dominated the all-time series against Ole Miss, but the Rebels took two 4-3 matches from LSU in 2005. Brown and his squad will be looking for a big crowd to help them get their revenge.
LSU will remain at home Sunday when it host Mississippi State at 1 p.m.