BATON ROUGE — After Mother Nature postponed the 17th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team’s first four matches, The Tigers are anxious to open the dual season against UL-Lafayette Wednesday afternoon at 1 p.m. at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Expected inclement weather forced LSU to reschedule its first four matches against Southern Miss, Southern, Centenary and UL-Lafayette.
The Ragin’ Cajuns (1-2) had two 7-0 losses against Arkansas and Arkansas-Little Rock this past weekend after defeating Grambling earlier in the week.
LSU owns a perfect 16-0 record against UL-Lafayette. The in-state opponents met last season with the Tigers coming out on top with a 7-0 victory.
“We have been anticipating the start of the season the last of couple of weeks,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We have had some great practices heading into this match. Your focus is always sharper as you get closer to the match. It will be nice for the guys to compete and for us to get a feel for where they are.”
LSU returns seven letterwinners, including second-team All-SEC selections Kevin Dessauer and Colt Gaston.
Freshman Sebastian Carlsson and senior Jan Zelezny are tied each with a team-high 11 wins this season.
Without playing a match the LSU men’s tennis team continues to rise in the national rankings as it jumped one spot to No. 17 in the latest rankings released by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association on Tuesday.
The Tigers have been listed in the top 20 since Feb. 13, 2007.
LSU is one of 11 Southeastern Conference teams listed in the rankings, including three in the top 10. Defending national champion Georgia is the highest-ranked conference team at No. 2, followed by Ole Miss (No. 5), Alabama (No. 10), Tennessee (No. 16), Florida (No. 19), Auburn (No. 31), Vanderbilt (No. 35), Kentucky (No. 47), Mississippi State (No. 56) and South Carolina (No. 58).