BATON ROUGE — The No. 15-ranked LSU men’s tennis team hosts the No. 32 Vanderbilt Commodores on Sunday at noon at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The Tigers (8-2, 2-1 SEC) are fresh off a dominating 6-1 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats on Friday. The Commodores (7-5, 2-1 SEC) defeated Arkansas, 5-2, on Friday in Fayetteville. The Tigers won the last meeting between the two teams in Nashville, 4-3. LSU is a commanding 40-14-1 all-time against Vanderbilt.
“They are a very good team that have picked up some quality wins this seasons,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “They have one of the most balanced lineups in the SEC. Obviously they are led by (Ryan) Preston at the number one spot but they have a number of talented players. We are going to have to have a good match at each position to get the win.”
The Tigers will look to continue their strong doubles play against the Commodores. The doubles point has proven to be a vital momentum swing for the Tigers this season as they lost the only two matches they lost the point.
LSU’s top-ranked team of No. 6 James Cluskley and Ken Skupski hope to bounce back after falling to the unranked duo of Kentucky’s Peter Bjork and Will Ward. The LSU pair has compiled a 13-6 record this season including two wins against duos ranked in the top 10.
Danny Bryan and Colt Gaston have been dominant in doubles play compiling a 11-1 record. The Tiger tandem’s only loss came against the No. 1 duo of Georgia’s Luis Flores and John Isner. The loss snapped a 21-match win streak for the LSU pair.
Junior Kevin Dessauer is having a breakout season for the Tigers. The former walk on has won nine out of his last ten matches and all nine of those victories came in straight sets.
In Friday’s match against Kentucky, senior Skupski won the 96th match of his career which places him tied for 6th place on LSU’s career singles wins list. The Liverpool, England native is three wins away from moving into the top 5 and four wins away from tying head coach Brown with 100.
Vanderbilt is coached by Ian Duvenhage, who is in his second season of leading the Commodores. Preston is the only Commodore listed in individual rankings at No. 32.