BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team posted at No. 28 in the final Campbell/Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings released by the ITA on Friday.
Head coach Jeff Brown has led the Tigers to a top-30 finish in each his 12 season at the helm the team. Out those finishes, eight were top 20 and three were top 10.
LSU debuted in the 2008-09 preseason polls at No. 19, but worked through rankings to peak at the position No. 14 on Feb. 19.
After several tough losses, the Tigers fell out the top 20. Victories over nationally-ranked opponents, including then-27th-ranked South Florida and 17th-ranked South Carolina, gave LSU the momentum it needed to once again climb the charts.
LSU defeated a total nine nationally-ranked opponents in dual competition and posted an overall 11-12 record.
Each the 12 Southeastern Conference teams finished in the national rankings with seven in addition to LSU finishing among the top 30.
Ole Miss led the rankings at No. 4. Georgia (No. 6) and Tennessee (No. 8) rounded out the top 10. Florida (No. 11), Kentucky (No. 15), Alabama (No. 16) and Auburn (No. 21) each earned a top-25 finish, respectively.
LSU will return four starters next season: Neal Skupski, Mark Bowtell, Sebastian Carlsson and Julien Gauthier.
Sophomore-to-be Skupski earned a role in the lineup as a standout freshman, marking 21 victories, second on the team only to LSU’s top 10 player Michael Venus, and earning Second-Team All-SEC Honors.
Bowtell will also enter his sophomore year with the Tigers. The County Wicklow, Ireland native earned an overall 14 victories and SEC Freshman the week honors for the week March 4.
Starters Sebastian Carlsson and Julien Gauthier will enter their junior season next year.
As a freshman, Carlsson notched 27 victories, the most by any freshman during Brown’s tenure. Carlsson played as highly as court three in his sophomore season, notching 15 wins with two over nationally-ranked opponents.
Gauthier marked 13 victories, one over Middle Tennessee State’s then-90th-ranked John Peers.
The 5-11 sophomore closed his season with a win over Rice’s Sam Garforth-Bles in the first round the NCAA Tournament.
DI Men Final Team Rankings
May 22, 2009
Administered by the ITA
Rank School
1 Southern California
2 Ohio State
3 Virginia
4 Mississippi
5 UCLA
6 Georgia
7 Baylor
8 Tennessee
9 Texas
10 Stanford
11 Florida
12 Illinois
13 Florida State
14 Texas A&M
15 Kentucky
16 Alabama
17 Wake Forest
18 Pepperdine
19 Miami (Fla.)
20 Boise State
21 Auburn
22 Louisville
23 Duke
24 Arizona
25 Oklahoma State
26 Washington
27 Virginia Tech
28 LSU
29 Tulsa
30 Minnesota