BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team demolished its opening day opponent as they defeated Southern, 6-0, on Friday afternoon at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Senior Ken Skupski moved himself up the school’s singles career victory rankings as he knocked off Southern’s Marlon Gichie for his 91st win of his career. The Liverpool, England native is now tied with former Tiger Zak Blanchard for 9th place in school history.
“Our team came out and handled themselves well, even with the poor weather conditions,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “In a season opener you never know how guys are going to react. I felt they did a good job of staying focused in singles and doubles.”
It only took 25 minutes for the Tigers to take the first doubles match as the pair of Kevin Dessauer and Jan Zelezny breezed past Ian Alcee and Bino Rasedisa, 8-0.
Ten minutes later the duo of Ken Skupski and James Cluskey also claimed an 8-0 victory when they defeated Marlon Gichie and Onx Matong to clinch the doubles point for the Tigers.
Martel Campbell and Eric DeRoche knocked off Elvis Espinal and Kashwane Nelson, 8-6, to finish the doubles sweep.
Jan Zelezny performed well in his first dual match as a Tiger by crushing Onx Matong, 6-0, 6-0.
The Tigers continued their strong play the rest of the way as all of the Tigers who finished won in straight sets.
The only thing that could stop the Tigers was the weather, as it started to rain in the last singles match of Eric DeRoche against Elvis Espinal, which did not allow the match to be finished.
The Tigers will continue to play on the practice courts on Saturday in their match against Centenary at 1 p.m., as their home courts are still being resurfaced. Sunday’s match against Southern Miss at 1 p.m. will be played at the Paula G. Manship YMCA located at 8100 Plaza Dr. in Baton Rouge. Brown said he expects the home courts to be ready for next Saturday’s match against UL-Lafayette.
#21 LSU 6, Southern 0
February 9, 2006 at Baton Rouge, La.
Singles
1. #9 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Marlon Gichie (SOUTHERN), 6-0, 6-0
2. Jan Zelezny (LSU) def. Onx Matong (SOUTHERN), 6-0, 6-0
3. Kevin Dessauer (LSU) def. Bino Rasedisa (SOUTHERN), 6-1, 6-0
4. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Ian Alcee (SOUTHERN), 6-2, 6-1
5. Eric DeRoche (LSU) def. Elvis Espinal (SOUTHERN), 6-2, 5-0 (DNF-rain)
6. Martel Campbell (LSU) def. Kashwane Nelson (SOUTHERN), 6-3, 6-1
Doubles
1. # 3 James Cluskey/Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Marlon Gichie/Ont Matong (SOUTHERN), 8-0
2. Kevin Dessauer/Jan Zelezny (LSU) def. Ian Alcee/Bino Rasedisa (SOUTHERN), 8-0
3. Martel Campbell /Eric DeRoche (LSU) def. Elvis Espinal/Kashwane Nelson (SOUTHERN), 8-6
Order of finish
Doubles: 2, 1, 3
Singles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6
# – national ranking