BATON ROUGE — The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will play it’s regular-season home finale Sunday when it host eighth-ranked Florida at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium for a 1 p.m. match.
The Tigers (10-6, 3-4 SEC) are coming off a dominating 6-1 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks on Friday. LSU owns a 9-2 record at the “Dub” this season.
The Gators (11-4, 6-1 SEC) defeated Arkansas, 5-2, in Fayetteville, Ark., on Friday. Florida has won four straight conference matches. Andy Jackson is in his seventh season as the Gators’ head coach.
The match against the Gators will mark the ninth time the Tigers have faced a top-25 team, including four in the top 10, this season. LSU is 6-6 against ranked opponents.
Florida owns a slim lead in the all-time series with a 25-22-1 record over LSU. Last season, the Gators won in Gainesville by a 4-3 score.
Prior to Sunday’s match, LSU will honor its three seniors ? Kevin Dessauer, Colt Gaston and Jan Zelezny.
The LSU Marketing and Promotions department will be on hand to help with the senior day festivities by giving out 100 LSU drawstring bags and conducting trivia contests during the break between singles and doubles.
“Florida is one of the hottest teams right now with recent wins over two top-15 teams ? Tennessee and Ole Miss,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “They are very talented and we are excited to face another top team. With the match coming on senior day, it makes it more special.”
LSU is currently tied for third in the SEC West with Auburn as they both own a 3-4 conference record. Florida sits in second (6-1) on the East side behind Georgia (7-0).
Two Gators are represented in the national rankings. Senior Greg Ouellette is listed at No. 3. The four-time ITA All-American is 14-6 against ranked opponents this season. Freshman Alex Lacroix appears at No. 53 in the rankings and owns a 17-9 record.
LSU also has two players in the singles rankings with Michael Venus (No. 74) and Jan Zelezny (No. 92). Venus owns four wins against ranked opponents and Zelezny has compiled a 19-13 record this season.
Team captain Dessauer owns an unblemished 9-0 record at home.
Also perfect at the “Dub” is LSU’s top doubles duo of James Cluskey and Venus with a 9-0 record.