BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team beat UL-Lafayette, 5-2, on Wednesday to complete a match the teams started on March 20.
In March the match was postponed due to rain not long after singles play started. Wednesday the two teams picked up exactly where they left off in the first meeting. LSU started with a 1-0 lead because it had won the doubles point. The Tigers were also ahead on every singles court.
No. 21-ranked Ken Skupski had already won his first set against ULL’s 89th?ranked Evghenii Corduneanu 6-0 and quickly put away the Cajuns’ No. 1 singles player Wednesday, winning the second set 6-4.
James Cluskey dominated Arlen Domoney on court five. The Tiger freshman began the match up 3-2 and surrendered only one game Wednesday in a 6-2, 6-1 win.
Danny Bryan clinched the match for LSU on the No. 3 singles court. The LSU team captain bested Cajun junior Dusan Tabak in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
However, the Cajuns did manage to take two matches off the Tigers. Senior Mark Growcott continued his struggles against in state opponents, losing to the Cajuns’ Amanjot Singh 7-6 (2), 7-5. Newly ranked Colt Gaston dropped a three set decision to Robin Ley 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Freshman Jose Moncada closed out the match, winning a third set super tiebreaker over Shaun Ellison and giving LSU the final 5-2 margin.
“I’m just happy that we didn’t come out here and blow it,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “It’s hard to come out here and start with a lead. Sometimes people will sort of sit around and wait for someone else to win it, but we didn’t do that today.”
The contest marked LSU’s last home match of the regular season. The Tigers will go on the road for their three reaming SEC matches, starting with Alabama on Friday at 5 p.m.
#16 LSU 5, #41 ULL 2
Singles
1. #21 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. #89 Evghenii Corduneanu 6-2, 6-4
2. Robin Ley (ULL) def. #100 Colt Gaston (LSU) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
3. Amanjot Singh (ULL) def. Mark Growcott (LSU) 7-6 (4), 7-5
4. Danny Bryan (LSU) def. Dusan Tabak 6-4, 6-4
5. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Arlen Domoney 6-2, 6-1
6. Jose Moncada (LSU) def. Shaun Ellison 6-2, 7-6 (4), 10-7 third set super tiebreaker
Doubles
1. #9 Growcott/Skupski (LSU) def. Domoney/Corduneanu 8-6
2. #25 Bryan/Gaston (LSU) def. Ley/Ellison 9-8
3. Cluskey/White (LSU) def. Singh/Tabak 9-8