BATON ROUGE — The No. 12-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will host the Arkansas Razorbacks in its regular-season finale on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The Tigers (14-5, 6-4 SEC) will try to do their part in securing a bye in next week’s Southeastern Conference Championships, which will be held at Robinson Tennis Stadium. The top four teams in the overall conference standings will receive a bye in the tournament. Georgia and Ole Miss have secured the top two seeds, while LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Florida and Tennessee are all in contention for the third and fourth spot.
“Every match gets more important as the season winds down,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We want to make sure we do our part in trying to get a bye in the conference tournament and help our seeding in the NCAA tournament.”
Additionally, the Tigers will honor their three seniors, Danny Bryan, Eric DeRoche and Ken Skupski, during their match.
“Our three seniors have each played a huge part in the team’s success,” Brown commented. “Skupski has played at the one spot all four years he has been here and has compiled numerous accomplishments. Bryan has improved each year he has been here and both him and Skupski have been great co-captains for us this year. DeRoche has always been ready for anything we ask of him. He has performed well on and off the court and practices as hard as anybody in the country.”
Arkansas (0-10, 7-20 SEC) is led by head coach Robert Cox, who is in his 20th season of leading the Razorbacks. The Razorbacks have lost their last seven matches. Most recently, Alabama defeated Arkansas, 6-1, on Sunday.
Arkansas represents one singles player and one doubles team in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings. Sophomore Blake Stron is listed at No. 77 in singles and the duo of Strode and junior Colin Mascall is listed at No. 49 in doubles.
The Tigers represent three players in singles rankings with Skupski (No. 24), Bryan (No. 34) and Kevin Dessauer (No. 76.) All three Tigers have compiled at least 20 wins this season.
LSU has been dominant in doubles play this season as they have won the doubles point 15 out of their 19 matches. Additionally, the Tigers have swept the doubles portion eight times this season.
Two LSU duos are ranked in the top 20. Bryan and Colt Gaston are listed at No. 7. The pair has won 30 of their last 32 matches. The team of James Cluskey and Skupski are listed at No. 19. The Tiger tandem has won four-straight matches.
LSU leads the all-time series against Arkansas with an 18-4 record. However, The Razorbacks won last season’s match in Fayetteville, Ark. by a 4-3 score.