BATON ROUGE — The No. 13-ranked LSU men’s tennis team could not hold on to a 3-0 lead against Auburn Sunday afternoon as it was upset by its division rival, 4-3, at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The loss is only the second for the Tigers (14-5, 6-4 SEC) at home. Auburn improves to 12-7 and 5-4 in the Southeastern Conference. It is the second-straight year that Auburn defeated LSU by a 4-3 score. LSU still leads in the all-time series with a 30-11 record.
After today’s SEC action, LSU sits in 5th place in conference standings behind Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Florida.
“We knew before the weekend that Alabama and Auburn were similar even with their difference in rankings,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We weren’t surprised with how hard they fought. We left them hanging around today and it came back to bite us. We have to do a better job of closing out when we are faced with that opportunity.”
After LSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead, Auburn bounced back to take the next three singles matches to tie it at 3-all. The match would be decided by the battle on court three where LSU’s Colt Gaston faced Luke Marsoun. Gaston took the first set by a 6-3 score but the remaining two sets would not finish as quickly. Neither player broke serve in the second set to send it to a tiebreaker. The stiff competition continued in the tiebreaker where Marsoun was able to outlast Gaston to send it to a third set.
The final set transpired in similar fashion. With the score tied 1-all Gaston took the momentum by taking three-straight games to give him a 4-1 lead. However, Marsoun fired back to take the next three games to tie it at 4-all. The two competitors spilt the next four games to push the deciding point to a tiebreaker. Gaston gave a valiant effort in the tiebreaker but it was not enough as Marsoun came out on top to take the tiebreaker and give Auburn the win.
In doubles, Kevin Dessauer and Jan Zelezny ended a two-match skid by defeating Pawel Dilaj and Marsoun, 8-3. Danny Bryan and Gaston followed suit by defeating Alex Schweizer and Robbert Lathouwers by the same score.
James Cluskey and Ken Skupski knocked off Terrence Nugent and Alexey Tsyrenov, 8-5, to complete the doubles sweep. The sweep marks the 15th time out of their 19 matches the Tigers have won the doubles point and eighth time they have swept the doubles portion.
Zelezny quickly extended LSU’s lead by ousting Nugent in straight sets, each by a 6-1 count. The 6-foot junior has won three-straight matches.
Co-captain Skupski continued the Tigers momentum by handily defeating the No. 47-ranked Schweizer, 6-4, 6-3. The win marks the sixth time this season Skupski has defeated a ranked opponent in straight sets.
With LSU up 3-0, Auburn was able to get on the scoreboard on court five where Tsyrenov defeated Cluskey, 6-3, 6-1.
Auburn cut the lead to one when Dilaj took out Dessauer, 6-3, 6-4.
Auburn’s comeback continued on court two where Lathouwers defeated Bryan, 6-3, 6-4, to set Marsoun up for the clinch.
LSU will play its final regular season match Saturday when it hosts Arkansas for senior day.
#40 Auburn 4, #13 LSU 3
April 8, 2007 at Baton Rouge, La.
Singles competition:
1. #24 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. #47 Alex Schweizer (AUB), 6-4, 6-3
2. #64 Robbert Lathouwers (AUB) def. #34 Danny Bryan (LSU), 7-5, 7-5
3. Lukas Marsoun (AUB) def. Colt Gaston (LSU), 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6)
4. Pawel Dilaj (AUB) def. #76 Kevin Dessauer (LSU), 6-3, 6-4
5. Alexey Tsyrenov (AUB) def. James Cluskey (LSU), 6-3, 6-1
6. Jan Zelezny (LSU) def. Terence Nugent (AUB), 6-1, 6-1
Doubles competition:
1. #7 Danny Bryan/Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Alex Schweizer/Robbert Lathouwers (AUB), 8-3
2. #19 James Cluskey/Ken Skupski (LSU) def. Terence Nugent/Alexey Tsyrenov (AUB), 8-5
3. Kevin Dessauer/Jan Zelezny (LSU) def. Pawel Dilaj/Lukas Marsoun (AUB), 8-3
Match notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (3, 2, 1); Singles (6, 1, 5, 4, 2, 3)