LEXINGTON, Ky. — Eight members of the LSU men’s tennis team are set to compete in the singles portion of the ITA Southeast Regional hosted at the University of Kentucky on Friday.
Sophomores Cody Loup and Ryan Lissner will kick the day off for the LSU with both of their matches beginning at 12:30 p.m. Loup will square off against University of Tennessee-Chattanooga player Peter Sauska and Ryan Lissner will take on James Crawford of Tennessee Tech University.
Six other Tigers are set for competition later in the afternoon, including No. 17 seed James Cluskey who will face Kyle Wishing of Middle Tennessee State University in 3:30 p.m. match .
Two LSU duos highlighted the doubles portion of the tournament for the Tigers. No. 5 seed James Cluskey and Julien Gauthier as well as Sebastian Carlsson and Neal Skupski reached the round of 16 in doubles.
“We worked on some doubles today and had some great matches for gaining confidence,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We want to get a big tournament from a few guys to continue making strides each week toward establishing a lineup.”
After receiving first round byes, both duos moved over their opponents in the second round. Carlsson and Skupski defeated Memphis duo Charlie Ramsay and Jorge Vasquez by a 9-8 (2) mark. Cluskey and Gauthier advanced by a 9-7 margin over Georgia’s Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrapiz.
Both LSU duos fell in the round of 16. The LSU tandem of Carlsson and Skupski’s run ended when No. 1 seed Jaime Hunt and Nate Schnugg of Georgia posted an 8-3 mark to take the match. Cluskey and Gauthier last squared off with Adam Baker and Alex Zotov of Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt duo posted an 8-4 mark over LSU and moved into doubles quarterfinals.
ITA Southeast Regional
October 16-20, 2008
Lexington, Ky.
All Times Central
Oct. 16
Doubles
Round of 64
Peter Sauska/ Pavel Vostrikov(UTC) def. Mark Bowtell / Jonathan Tragardh (LSU), 8-3
Round of 32
Sebatian Carlsson/ Neal Skupski (LSU) def. Ramsay/Vasquez (Memphis), 9-8 (2)
Ricky Doverspike/ Andrew Felsenthal (UA) def. Ryan Lissner/Cody Loup( LSU), 8-5
5 James Cluskey/Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Drake Bernstein/ Javier Garrapiz (UGA), 9-7
Round of 16
1 Jaime Hunt/ Nate Schnugg (UGA) def. Sebastian Carlsson/ Neal Skupski (LSU), 8-3
Adam Baker/ Alex Zotov (VU) def. 5 James Cluskey/ Julien Gauthier( LSU), 8-4
Oct. 17
Singles
(All matches to be held at the Lexington Tennis Club)
Round of 128
Cody Loup (LSU) vs. Peter Sauska (UTC) , 12:30 p.m.
Ryan Lissner (LSU) vs. James Crawford (TTU), 12:30 p.m.
Julien Gauthier (LSU) vs. Leon Nasemann (Memphis), 2:00 p.m.
Neal Skupski (LSU) vs. Josh Girling (TTU), 2:00 p.m.
Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) vs. Richard Cowden (MTSU), 3:00 p.m.
17 James Cluskey (LSU) v. Kyle Wishing (MTSU), 3:30 p.m.
Mark Bowtell (LSU) vs. Andrew Felsenthal (UA), 3:30 p.m.
Jonathan Tragardh (LSU) vs. Lawrence Washington Jr. (KSU), 3:30 p.m.