BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team knocked off a second straight top 10 opponent and snapped a five match-losing streak to rival Ole Miss, beating the Rebels 4-3 Sunday at W. T. Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“This is another big time, program building win,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We played a complete match today and that is what it takes to beat a team like Ole Miss.”
The Tigers (12-6, 5-2 SEC) jumped out early on all three doubles courts and looked like they cruise to another doubles sweep. 14th-ranked Danny Bryan and Colt Gaston finished their work early, putting away the Rebels’ Juan Pablo Dicesare and Bram ten Berge, 8-3.
However, Ole Miss refused to go down easily and rallied in the other matches. On the No. 3, LSU’s Paul White and James Cluskey were unable to capitalize on an early 5-2 lead, dropping their match to Jakob Klaesson and Robyee Poole, 8-5. The loss snapped a five match-winning streak for Cluskey and Growcott.
The doubles point came down to court one. Despite a rally by the Rebels’ 15th-ranked Erling Tveit and Eric Claesson, the Tigers’ No. 1 doubles duo of Mark Growcott and Ken Skupski held on to pull out the match 9-8 in a 7-3 tiebreaker, clinching the early point for LSU.
Just as it did against Florida last weekend, LSU was able to pull out the tough singles wins it needed to seal the match.
LSU team captain and reigning SEC player of the week Danny Bryan came out on fire. Bryan moved up to the No. 3 doubles spot for the first time and rolled over ten Berge in straight sets 6-2, 6-1.
On court six, Poole downed LSU’s Martell Campbell 6-2, 7-6 (3), despite an outstanding effort to by Campbell to force a third set.
It was the top of the LSU singles lineup that proved too much for the Rebels. In the battle on court one, No. 22-ranked Skupski picked up a big win over the 14th-ranked Tveit. Skupski jumped in front early, but Tveit fought back to take the second set. In the third set Skupski was too strong, finishing the Rebels’ No. 1 for a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win.
The clincher came from sophomore Colt Gaston on court two. Gaston, looking as good as he has since suffering a midseason injury, outplayed the 40th-ranked Claesson to take their match 7-5, 6-4. It was Gaston’s first ranked win since moving to the No. 2 singles spot.
Growcott and Cluskey weren’t able to pull out their matches on courts four and five. Both players battled hard, brushing off slow starts to take their matches to third sets.
“Even on the courts that we fell behind on early, we were able to come back and be in a position to win. That was big because it seemed to change the momentum of the match,” said Brown. “Danny, Ken and Colt played really well and those are quality wins they picked up.”
LSU now moves its SEC winning streak to four matches. The Tigers will look to make it five in a row Sunday when they host Mississippi State at 1 p.m.
#19 LSU 4, #8 Ole Miss 3
Singles
1. #22 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. #16 Erling Tveit (Ole Miss) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
2. Colt Gaston (LSU) def. #40 Eric Claesson (Ole Miss) 7-5, 6-4
3. Danny Bryan (LSU) def. Bram ten Berge (Ole Miss) 6-2, 6-1
4. #72 Juan Pablo Dicesare (Ole Miss) def. Mark Growcott (LSU) 6-2, 5-7, 7-5
5. Jakob Klaesson (Ole Miss) def. James Cluskey (LSU) 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
6. #110 Robyee Poole (Ole Miss) def. Martel Campbell (LSU) 6-2, 7-6 (3)
Doubles
1. #12 Skupski/Growcott (LSU) def. #15 Claesson/Tveit (Ole Miss) 9-8 (3)
2. #14 Bryan/Gaston (LSU) def. Dicesare/ten Berge (Ole Miss) 8-3
3. Poole/Klaesson(Ole Miss) def. White/Cluskey (LSU) 8-5