BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team jumped seven spots in the national rankings as it moved up to No. 19, the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced on Tuesday.
The Tigers (9-6, 2-4 SEC) went 1-2 last week. All three matches were against top-20 teams.
On Tuesday, LSU traveled to17th-ranked Rice for its final non-conference match and left with a 5-2 victory. Junior Michael Venus clinched the match by overcoming a first-set deficit to defeat 49th-ranked Christoph Muller, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-5.
LSU won the doubles point against third-ranked Georgia and 10th-ranked Tennessee this past weekend, but could only notch one win in singles between the two matches and fell against the Bulldogs, 4-2, and Volunteers, 6-1
LSU is one of seven Southeastern Conference teams listed in the top 25. Three conference teams appear in the top 10 with Georgia (No. 3), Ole Miss (No. 7) and Florida (No. 8). Also in the top 25 are Tennessee (No. 12), Alabama (No. 24) and Auburn (No. 25).
LSU is currently fourth in the SEC West with a 2-4 record behind Ole Miss (4-2), Alabama (4-2) and Auburn (3-3).
Individual rankings were not updated this week as Tigers Venus and Jan Zelezny remained in the singles rankings at No. 74 and No. 92, respectfully.
LSU will have its final two home matches next weekend when it host South Carolina on Friday at 2 p.m. and eight-ranked Florida on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Florida match will serve as senior day for Kevin Dessauer, Colt Gaston and Jan Zelezny.
Men’s Team Rankings
Administered by the ITA
NCAA Division I Tennis
March 25, 2008
Team
Rank Avg School
1 91 Virginia
2 81.4 Ohio State
3 79.6 Georgia
4 71.7 Southern California
5 67.6 Texas
6 65.1 UCLA
7 63.7 Mississippi
8 62.1 Florida
9 57.9 North Carolina
10 54.5 Florida State
11 53.2 Tulsa
12 49.3 Tennessee
13 47.4 Pepperdine
14 47.3 Michigan
15 47.2 Arizona State
16 42.7 Illinois
17 42.1 Texas Tech
18 41.6 Baylor
19 38.1 LSU
20 37.4 Washington
21 36.2 Texas A&M
22 34.9 Rice
23 33.3 Oklahoma State
24 33 Alabama
25 31.7 Auburn