BATON ROUGE — Junior Colt Gaston of the No. 20-ranked LSU men’s tennis team was one game away from defeat before he rallied back to take his last two sets and clinch the match for LSU against the No. 30-ranked Rice Owls Tuesday afternoon at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The win improves the Tigers record to 5-0. The Owls drop to 6-3.
“This match had a little bit of everything,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We had some guys playing really well, playing with injuries and overcoming slow starts. It was a great match to watch. They had their full lineup and we were fortune to win today. It was the team’s first big test and they did well.”
In doubles, the No.3-ranked team of James Cluskey and Ken Skupski striked first for the Tigers on court one as they handily defeated Rice’s duo of Ralph Knupfer and Tobias Scheil by an 8-4 decision. The win improves the Tiger tandem’s record this season to 11-3.
Danny Bryan and Gaston pushed their winning streak to 19 by defeating Rice’s Jason Mok and Christoph Muller, 8-3, to clinch the doubles point for LSU. This is the second time Bryan has defeated the Mok and Muller duo this season. Bryan teamed up with Kevin Dessauer to defeat the Rice tandem last September at the Courtyard by Marriot/Rice Invitational.
The toughest battle came on court three, where Dessauer and Jan Zelezny faced off against Rice’s Ben Harknett and Filip Zivojinovic. The LSU pair jumped out to a 4-1 lead before the Rice duo fought back to cut LSU’s lead to 6-5. LSU claimed the next game to set it to game point, but Rice bounced back taking the next two games sending the match to a tiebreaker. Both teams continued their back-and-forth battle in the tiebreaker before Rice pulled away, winning the tiebreaker by a 7-5 count.
In singles, Dessauer continued his impressive play as he breezed past Tobias Scheil in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1. The two-time ITA Scholar Athlete boasts a 12-5 record this season. Bryan also took his opponent in straight sets, winning 6-3, 7-5. The win improves Bryan’s record to a team-best 15-3, and gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead.
LSU’s singles-set winning streak of 43 came to end when Skupski dropped his first set against Harknett, 6-3. Skupski returned the favor in the next set as he won by a 6-3 decision. The two England natives continued their strong play in the final set, but Harknett came out on top, 6-3, to pull off the upset.
Cluskey struggled in his match against Mok, as he lost in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. LSU’s lead was now cut to 3-2.
Zelezny won his first set against Muller, 6-4. But severe leg cramps prevented Zelezny from continuing his momentum as he lost the next two sets.
With LSU and Rice tied 3-all, the match would be decided by the battle of Gaston against Paroci. After Peroci took the first set, the second set went to a tiebreaker. Gaston came out strong in the tiebreaker, winning the tiebreaker to push the match to a third set. With the score tied four games a piece and his teammates cheering him on, Gaston took the final two games to give the Tigers the win.
The Tigers will face another strong opponent on Saturday at 11 a.m. when they face No. 2 Ohio State.
#20 LSU 4, #30 Rice 3
February 20, 2007 at Baton Rouge, La.
Singles competition:
1. #50 Ben Harknett (RICE) def. #9 Ken Skupski (LSU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
2. Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Filip Paroci (RICE), 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4
3. #68 Danny Bryan (LSU) def. Ralph Knupfer (RICE), 6-3, 7-5
4. Kevin Dessauer (LSU) def. Tobias Scheil (RICE), 6-4, 6-1
5. Christoph Muller (RICE) def. Jan Zelezny (LSU), 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1
6. Jason Mok (RICE) def. James Cluskey (LSU), 6-4, 6-4
Doubles competition:
1. #3 James Cluskey/Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Ralph Knupfer/Tobias Scheil (RICE), 8-4
2. Danny Bryan/Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Jason Mok/Christoph Muller (RICE), 8-3
3. Ben Harknett/Filip Zivojinovic (RICE) def. Kevin Dessauer/Jan Zelezny (LSU), 9-7 (5)
# – National rankings
Order of finish:
Singles: 4, 3, 1, 6, 5, 2
Doubles: 1,2,3