BATON ROUGE — Senior Michael Venus of the LSU men’s tennis team earned the Southeastern Conference Athlete of the Week honor, the league office announced Wednesday.
In LSU’s last two matches against top-10 teams, No. 3 Georgia and No. 5 Tennessee, Venus provided a strong singles point as he took down both Georgia’s tenth-ranked Nate Schnugg and Tennessee’s seventh-ranked John-Patrick Smith.
Against Georgia, the 6-3 senior was one of only two Tigers to notch a singles victory on the road against the Bulldogs by defeating Schnugg in a close three-set match, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), before returning to Baton Rouge to face the fifth-ranked Vols.
In his second top-10 matchup, Venus overcame a first-set deficit to upset Smith in front of a home crowd by posting a 6-1, 6-4 mark in the last two sets. The victory forced the match decision to court six after locking the scoreboard at 3-3.
The Orlando, Fla., native earns the honor one day after moving up in the singles rankings from the No. 9 to the No. 6 spot in the nation. Venus leads the team in singles victories with an 8-5 record.
Venus and the rest of the Tigers return to SEC competition against their third top-10 team in a week as LSU travels to Gainesville, Fla., to take on No. 10 Florida in a 2 p.m. CDT match on Friday at the Ring Tennis Complex.
Tennis' Venus Named to USTA Collegiate Team