KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The No. 20-ranked LSU men’s tennis team opens the Southeastern Conference dual match season on Friday at 3 p.m. when it travels to face No. 30 Tennessee.
The Tigers (6-1) are coming off a 6-1 victory against TCU on Tuesday. The Volunteers (6-2) held off Furman on Sunday, 4-3. LSU defeated Tennessee last season, 4-3, in Baton Rouge. LSU leads the all-time series at 28-21-1.
“Tennessee has been one of our long-time rivals and we have had some great matches in the past,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We look forward to another great match on Friday.”
Both teams are represented well in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. In singles, LSU has No. 24 Ken Skupski and No. 62 Danny Bryan. Tennessee also boasts two players in singles with No. 23 Bobby Cameron and No. 29 Kaden Hensel. In doubles, Skupski and Cluskey are at No. 6 and Bryan and Colt Gaston come in at No. 25. Cameron and Hensel are also listed in doubles rankings, at No. 44.
Bryan and Gaston will enter Friday’s match with a 20-match win streak dating back to last season.
Kevin Dessauer continues to improve in his junior season. After only winning five singles matches last season, the former walk on is tied for second on the team with 13 victories. Dessauer’s most notable win came on Saturday when he upset No. 35 Devin Mullings of Ohio State.
After Friday’s match, LSU will travel to No. 1 Georgia on Sunday.
“It is certainly not an easy task to open the SEC on the road against two top teams,” Brown commented. “But right now we are playing at a high level and understand what lies ahead of us.”