BATON ROUGE — The 32nd-ranked LSU men’s tennis team completed the match against 69th-ranked Mississippi State on Monday morning, claiming a 4-2 victory in the Southeastern Conference match.
LSU (8-10, 3-7 SEC ) and Mississippi State sat tied at 2-2 on Sunday when the match was delayed due to inclement weather with two matches left unfinished.
At the time of the delay, freshman Neal Skupski led Mississippi State’s Antonio Lastre 4-2 in the second set on court four after dropping the first set by a narrow 7-6 margin.
On court six, LSU senior Jonathan Tragardh held a 3-3 match with Tanner Stump after splitting the first two sets with the 6-1 Mississippi State sophomore.
Both LSU players brought the momentum of Sunday into Monday’s match.
Tragardh took his match, finishing with a 7-5 mark in the third set, and poised the Tigers to take the match on court four where Skupski and Lastre still battled.
Lastre led Skupski 4-3 in the third set when Skupski rallied. The LSU freshman posted the next three points to take his court and clinch LSU’s 4-2 victory over Mississippi State.
“Jon and Neal did a good job of dealing with the pressure and having to sleep on the match,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “They competed and executed well. It was a good win for the team against a hungry Mississippi State.”
LSU has one final match scheduled in W.T. Robinson Stadium for the season. On Saturday, the Tigers will square off in a noon SEC match against 42nd-ranked Arkansas before preparing for the SEC Tournament, which begins April 23 in Auburn, Ala.
#32 LSU 4, #69 Mississippi State 2
Apr 12, 2009
W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium
Singles competition
1. #6 Michael Venus (LSU) def. #88 Ryan Farlow (MSU) 6-1, 6-2
2. #89 Artem Ilyushin (MSU) def. James Cluskey (LSU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-3
3. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) def. Louis Cant (MSU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
4. Neal Skupski (LSU) def. Antonio Lastre (MSU) 6-7 (7-9), 6-2, 6-4
5. Christopher Doerr (MSU) def. Julien Gauthier (LSU) 7-5, 6-3
6. Jonathan Tragardh (LSU) def. Tanner Stump (MSU) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
Doubles not contested.
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Singles (1,5,3,2,6,4)