BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team had several strong singles performances that brought the match between 31st-ranked LSU and No. 5 Tennessee to a close 4-3 mark on Sunday in Robinson Stadium.
Tennessee took the early 1-0 lead after posting the doubles point, but the Tigers notched a win on court two. LSU sophomore duo Sebastian Carlsson and Julien Gauthier highlighted the doubles performance for the Tigers as the tandem came from behind at a 2-4 mark to take the match against Tennessee’s Boris Conkic and Matteo Fago, 8-5.
“We didn’t play our best in doubles, but we got off to a good start in singles,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We responded and competed better than we have all year. It will certainly benefit us and we are looking forward to our next match.”
LSU (6-8, 1-5 SEC) answered Tennessee’s lead by posting the first two victories in singles. Freshman Neal Skupski was first off the courts with a victory for the Tigers as he rolled over Davey Sandgren, 6-0, 6-0.
Next was LSU’s Gauthier. The Tiger sophomore fought to a first-set mark of 7-6 over Tennessee’s Matt Brewer, and then cruised to a 6-2 mark in the second set for LSU to take the lead.
After Gauthier’s victory, two of LSU’s players fell, senior James Cluskey on court two and Carlsson on court three, for Tennessee to regain the boards, leaving only two courts undecided.
On court one in a top 10 match, ninth-ranked LSU senior Michael Venus faced Tennessee’s seventh-ranked John-Patrick Smith. Smith was able to post a first-set victory of 6-4, but Venus broke out to win the upset in the second and third sets, 6-1, 6-4.
The match decision fell to court six where LSU freshman Mark Bowtell and Tennessee’s Christian Hansen locked into a standoff.
Bowtell took the first set 6-3 against Hansen; however, the Tennessee freshman turned tide after posting a 6-2 second-set mark. After Hansen took the second set, he used the momentum and took the match 6-1 in third set, just barely edging out LSU 4-3.
Tennessee is now 16-3 on season and 5-1 in SEC competition.
LSU hits the road for its next two conference matches on April 3 against Florida at 2 p.m. and April 5 against South Carolina at noon. The Tigers will return home for their final three SEC matches beginning against Ole Miss on April 10 at a new match time of 1 p.m. in W.T. Robinson Stadium.
#5 Tennessee 4, #31 LSU 3
Mar 29, 2009 at
W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium
Singles competition
1. #9 Michael Venus (LSU) def. #7 John-Patrick Smith (UT) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4
2. #25 Boris Conkic (UT) def. James Cluskey (LSU) 6-3, 7-5
3. Matteo Fago (UT) def. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) 6-1, 6-4
4. Neal Skupski (LSU) def. Davey Sandgren (UT) 6-0, 6-0
5. Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Matt Brewer (UT) 7-6, 6-2
6. Christian Hansen (UT) def. Mark Bowtell (LSU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. #8 Davey Sandgren/John-Patrick Smith (UT) def. #12 Neal Skupski/Michael Venus (LSU) 8-6
2. Sebastian Carlsson/Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Boris Conkic/Matteo Fago (UT) 8-5
3. Matt Brewer/Bryan Swartz (UT) def. James Cluskey/Jonathan Tragardh (LSU) 9-7
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (1, 3, 2); Singles (4, 5, 2, 3, 1, 6)