BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team will host the opening rounds of the 2009 NCAA Tournament and will face Rice on Friday, May 8, in W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium in a 1 p.m. CDT match.
“I’m excited for our players and fans to have another opportunity for the team to play at home,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said.
The Tigers (10-11) will square off with the Owls for the second time this season on the courts of the “Dub.” LSU trails Rice in the all-time series with a 10-16-2 mark, but it was LSU that claimed victory in the 4-3 decision at W.T. Robinson Stadium on Feb. 7 for the Tigers’ 2009 home opener.
The winner of the match between the two teams will face the winner of the match between Alcorn State and No. 2 Ole Miss, decided in a 10 a.m. match on Friday.
“To host the No. 2 team in the nation in Ole Miss, highly-ranked Rice and SWAC Champion Alcorn State in the opening rounds is exciting for our team,” Brown said.
LSU last competed at the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The eighth-seeded Tigers cruised to a 4-2 mark over the ninth-seeded South Carolina Gamecocks in the first round. Second-ranked and top ?seeded Ole Miss knocked off the Tigers in day two by posting a 4-2 mark in the quarterfinals.
For 34th-ranked Rice, this is its seventh-consecutive tournament berth under head coach Ron Smarr as the Owls finished the regular season with a 17-10 record.
Alcorn State is led by Anthony Dodgen, with a 7-10 mark. The team received its NCAA berth after defeating Arkansas Pine-Bluff, 4-1, to clinch the 2009 Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship.
Ole Miss most recently captured the SEC Championship, pushing its record to 24-2 under head coach Billy Chadwick.
In total, the SEC posted nine teams in the NCAA Tournament. Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee join LSU and Ole Miss in the tournament.
LSU holds a 27-25 all-time record at the NCAA Tournament, receiving a berth 25 times, putting LSU second in the SEC only to Georgia (30). Last season, the Tigers fell in the second round to No. 15 Illinois, 4-2, to cap their season with a final 15-9 record. Head coach Jeff Brown has led the team to the tournament each of his 12 seasons at the helm, reaching the semifinals in his first two years (1998,’99).
Should LSU advance past Rice, the Tigers would face the winner of the Alcorn State and Ole Miss match on Saturday, May 9 at 1 p.m.