BATON ROUGE — The No. 20-ranked LSU men’s tennis team took down TCU by a 6-1 score at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.
The win improves the Tigers record to 6-1 on the season. The Horned Frogs drop to 1-3. The match only had five singles matches and two doubles matches due to TCU being limited to five players.
“Today was just what we needed after our tough Ohio State loss,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We did a good job of staying focused on the task at hand and took care of business.”
In doubles play, the Tigers cruised in both matches as the nationally ranked teams of No. 25 Danny Bryan and Colt Gaston, and No. 6 James Cluskey and Ken Skupski both captured 8-1 victories. Kevin Dessauer and Jan Zelezny won their match by default.
In singles play, Eric DeRoche won his match at the No. 6 position by default. Cluskey gave the Tigers a 3-0 edge with a win on court five, 6-1, 6-0, against Stuart Row. Bryan clinched the match for the Tigers with a straight sets victory over Andrew Ulrich, 6-1, 6-1.
The Horned Frogs fired back on court two where Kriegler Brink defeated Gaston, 6-4, 6-3.
Junior Kevin Dessauer improved his record this season to 7-0 when he defeated Caleb Bull in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3. Additionally, the New Orleans native has won all 14 of his singles sets in dual play.
Ken Skupski fell behind early in his match against Cosmin Cotet as he was swept in the first set, 6-0. Skupski rallied back in the second set, jumping to a 4-1 lead. Skupski and Cotet battled back and forth before going to a tiebreaker. Skupski stayed alive by taking the tiebreaker by a 7-4 count. Since LSU had already clinched the match, the two competitors would go to a super tiebreaker to finish theiratch. After Skupski jumped to a 7-4 lead in the super tiebreaker, Cotet was forced to retire because of an ankle injury. The match counts as a win for Skupski and is the 95th of his career. The two-time ITA All-American is now in solo possession of 8th place on LSU career singles victories list.
The Tigers will go on the road for the first time on Friday when they travel to No. 30 Tennessee.
#20 LSU 6, #49 TCU 1
February 27, 2007 at Baton Rouge, La.
Singles competition:
1. #24 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Cosmin Cotet (TCU), 0-6, 7-6 (4), 7-4 (retired-injury)
2. Kriegler Brink (TCU) def. Colt Gaston (LSU), 6-4, 6-3
3. #62 Danny Bryan (LSU) def. Andrew Ulrich (TCU), 6-1, 6-1
4. Kevin Dessauer (LSU) def. Caleb Bulls (TCU), 6-3, 6-3
5. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Stuart Row (TCU), 6-1, 6-0
6. Eric DeRoche (LSU), won by default
Doubles competition:
1. #25 Danny Bryan/Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Cosmin Cotet/Kriegler Brink (TCU), 8-1
2. #6 James Cluskey/Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Andrew Ulrich/Stuart Row (TCU), 8-1
3. Kevin Dessauer/Jan Zelezny (LSU) won by default
Match notes:
Order of Finish: Doubles (2, 1); Singles (5, 3, 2, 4, 1)