AUBURN, Ala. — The 18th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team overcame some unfortunate breaks in doubles to put up a valiant effort in singles against Auburn Sunday afternoon at the Yarbrough Tennis Center, but it was not enough as Auburn squeaked by with a 4-3 decision.
Sunday’s match marks the third-straight year Auburn (6-3, 2-0 SEC) has defeated LSU (4-3, 0-2 SEC) by a 4-3 score. LSU still leads the all-time series with a 30-12 record.
“I thought we responded well in singles,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We did a good job of putting ourselves in position to win. I think the inexperience with our three first-year guys kind of showed. We are going to continue to grow and the only way to learn is to get thrown into the fire and we did. You are going to take a couple of bumps on the road in the SEC. We hope to rebound very quickly.”
LSU took the early lead in doubles when juniors James Cluskey and Michael Venus topped the 31st-ranked duo of Tim Puetz and Lukas Marsoun, 8-3.
Auburn quickly tied it when Alex Petropoulos and Milan Krnjetin defeated seniors Kevin Dessauer and Jan Zelezny, 8-3.
The doubles point came down to court one where senior Colt Gaston and freshman Julien Gauthier faced the 43rd-ranked pair of Terence Nugent and Alexey Tsyrenov. Auburn’s home-court advantage proved to be too much for LSU as Nugent and Tsyrenov took the match, 8-5, to give Auburn the doubles point.
After Auburn took the first singles point on court two to go up 2-0, Carlsson put LSU on the scoreboard with a straight-sets victory over Pawel Dilaj, 6-4, 7-5. Carlsson leads LSU with 16 singles victories this season.
Auburn held a 3-1 advantage after Tsyrenov defated Venus on court one, 7-6, 6-4.
Team captain Dessauer rallied back from a 6-1 first-set loss to win his match against Petropoulos on court six, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. Dessauer has now won six straight matches and owns an 11-7 record.
Gauthier lost his first set against Marsoun in a tiebreaker but pushed his match to a third set with a 7-5 second-set victory. Marsoun got the better of Gauthier and won the final set, 6-3, to clinch the win for Auburn.
Even with the match decided, Cluskey closed out the day by defeating Nugent, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
LSU will host three teams next weekend beginning with Kentucky on Friday and Vanderbilt and Centenary on Sunday.
#35 Auburn def. #18 LSU, 4-3
March 2, 2008 at Auburn, Ala.
City of Auburn/Auburn University Yarbrough Tennis Center
Singles
1. #59 Alexey Tsyrenov (AUB) def. #70 Michael Venus (LSU), 7-6, 6-4
2. #81 Tim Puetz (AUB) def. Jan Zelezny (LSU), 7-6, 6-4
3. Lukas Marsoun (AUB) def. Julien Gauthier (LSU), 7-6, 5-7, 6-3
4. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Terence Nugent (AUB), 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
5. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) def. Pawel Dilaj (AUB), 6-4, 7-5
6. Kevin Dessauer (LSU) def. Alex Petropoulos (AUB), 1-6, 6-1, 6-4
Doubles
1. #43 Terence Nugent/Alexey Tsyrenov (AUB) def. Colt Gaston/Julien Gauthier (LSU), 8-5
2. James Cluskey/Michael Venus (LSU) def. #31 Tim Puetz/Lukas Marsoun (AUB), 8-3
3. Alex Petropoulos/Milan Krnjetin (AUB) def. #57 Kevin Dessauer/Jan Zelezny (LSU), 8-3
# – national ranking
Match Notes:
LSU: 4-3; National ranking #18
Auburn: 6-3; National ranking #35
Order of finish: Doubles: (2,3,1); Singles (2,5,1,6,3,4)