BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s tennis team earned back-to-back wins on Thursday at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium against UL-Lafayette and New Orleans, 6-1 and 4-0, respectively.
The doubleheader advanced LSU’s record to 2-4 on the season with a 20-0 all-time record against ULL and a 23-0 record over UNO.
“Today’s matches were good for several of the guys to get back in winning form and get a positive feeling going into Sunday against Texas A&M,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We got pushed in doubles, which was good for us, and I was able to see improvement in the guys between the two matches.”
The Tigers swept doubles against the Ragin’ Cajuns to jump to a 1-0 lead. The doubles point marked the first time since LSU’s opening match against Louisville on Jan. 29 that the Tigers held the early advantage.
Sebastian Carlsson and Stefan Szacinski gave LSU their first win on the doubles court when the Tiger tandem rolled to an 8-4 mark over ULL’s Javier Pulgar-Garcia and Neil Schneider.
LSU duo Neal Skupski and Roger Anderson notched their third win of the season and clinched the early point with a victory over Yanick Mandl and Carlin Murray on court one, 9-7.
Moments after Skupski and Anderson clinched the point, LSU took court three when Julien Gauthier and James Turbervill defeated ULL’s Tomasz Krzyszkowski and Robert Voss 9-7 to earn their first win of the season as a tandem.
The Tigers powered to a dominant performance in singles as well taking four courts in straight sets. Carlsson was the first Tiger to post a win in singles with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Krzykowski on court two.
Turbervill followed Carlsson off the courts after picking up win on court six over Voss, 6-3, 6-2.
Mark Bowtell dealt the final blow to the Ragin’ Cajuns on court five when the 6-4 sophomore defeated Schneider, 6-1, 6-4.
After the Tigers clinched victory, Skupski earned a win on court one over Pulgar, 7-5, 6-3, and Szacinski took court four with a third-set tiebreaker over Mandl, 6-3, 4-6, 10-6.
LSU powered on with the same dominant force against New Orleans. The Tigers once again swept doubles and took the 1-0 lead into singles over the Privateers. In the sweep, newly paired LSU duo Cody Loup and David Roberts breezed to an 8-4 victory over Guilherme Rebolo and Rohit Chivukula for their first win as a tandem.
In singles, LSU jumped ahead on all six courts. The first to check-in with a victory was Loup on court six with a straight-set win over Chivukula, 6-1, 6-0.
Next off the courts was Carlsson in his second victory of the day with a win against Bouhana on court two, 6-3, 6-0.
Turbervill posted a straight-set win on court five against Zaki 6-0, 6-1 to clinch the match for the Tigers, 4-0.
The wins push LSU’s home court record to 137-32 since Brown’s inaugural season as head coach in 1998.
LSU’s next home match is slated for Sunday against Texas A&M. The Tigers and 17th-rankedAggies will square off in a 1 p.m. CST match on the Tigers’ home courts in W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
#37 LSU 6, UL-Lafayette 1
Feb. 25, 2010
Baton Rouge, La.
W.T “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium
Singles
1. #50 Neal Skupski (LSU) def. Javier Pulgar (ULL), 7-5, 6-3
2. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) def. Tomasz Krzykowski (ULL), 6-1, 6-2
3. Carlin Murray (ULL) def. Julien Gauthier (LSU), 1-6, 6-2, 6-2
4. Stefan Szacinski (LSU) def. Yanick Mandl, 6-3, 4-6, 10-6
5. Mark Bowtell (LSU) def. Neil Schneider (ULL), 6-1, 6-4
6. James Turbervill (LSU) def. Robert Voss (ULL) 6-3, 6-2
Doubles
1. Anderson/ Skupski (LSU) def. Mandl/Murray (ULL), 9-7
2. Carlsson/Szacinski (LSU) def. Pulgar/Schneider (ULL), 8-4
3. Gauthier/Turbervill (LSU) def. Krzyszkowski/Voss (ULL), 9-7
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (2,6,5,1,3,4)
#37 LSU 4, UNO 0
Feb. 25, 2010
Baton Rouge, La.
W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium
Singles
1. #50 Neal Skupski (LSU), Stepan Siska (ULL), 6-2, 2-1, unfinished
2. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU), Benjamin Bouhana (UNO), 6-3, 6-0
3. Julien Gauthier (LSU) vs. Ben Smith (UNO), 6-3, 2-2, unfinished
4. Stefan Szacinski (LSU) vs. Guilherme Rebolo (UNO), 6-2, unfinished
5. James Turbervill (LSU), Abdelrahman Zaki (UNO), 6-0, 6-1
6. Cody Loup (LSU) def. Rohit Chivukula (UNO), 6-1, 6-0
Doubles
1. Anderson/Skupski (LSU), Bouhana/Siska (UNO), 8-7 (7-3)
2. Gauthier/Turbervill (LSU) def. Smith/Zaki (UNO), 8-5
3. Loup/Roberts (LSU) def. Rebolo/Chivukula (UNO), 8-4
Order of Finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (6,2,5)