BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s tennis team narrowly fell for the second time in a week to a top-10 team as the Tigers dropped a Southeastern Conference matchup with seventh-ranked Georgia, 5-2, on Sunday in W.T. Robinson Stadium.
Although a 5-2 final mark, the Tigers remained in contention for the match throughout competition.
LSU vaulted into singles on a strong note after losing the early doubles point. Although LSU junior Cody Loup fell to Christian Vitulli, the Tigers picked up two back-to-back wins on courts five and one.
Junior Julien Gauthier put the Tigers on the board with a straight-set win on court five over Bo Seal, 6-4, 6-2, and Neal Skupski rebounded from a first set deficit on the top court to No. 96 Nate Schnugg, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. The win pushed Skupski’s record at court one to 6-4 and was his eighth win against a nationally-ranked opponent this season.
After LSU’s Mark Bowtell fell on court three, LSU trailed Georgia 3-2 with two matches in progress, and both Sebastian Carlsson and Stefan Szacinski entered into three-set standoffs with their Georgia opponents.
Szacinski battled into the third set to trail Drake Bernstein 5-4, but Bernstein captured the next point to take the court and clinch the match for the Bulldogs. Carlsson fell shortly after to 18th-ranked Javier Garrapiz, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.
“We gave ourselves an opportunity in the doubles point, but we didn’t capitalize on it,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “In singles, we did a good job of fighting, but we put ourselves in too big of a hole against too good of a team. We are focused on the difficulty of schedule and what we’ve benefited from it so we can learn going forward.”
LSU is now 5-10 in dual action and 2-4 in conference play. The Tigers hit the road for their next conference action as they travel to take on Alabama April 2 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. in a 3 p.m. CT match.
#7 Georgia 5, #41 LSU 2
March 28, 2010
Baton Rouge, La.
W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium
Singles
1. #46 Neal Skupski (LSU) def. #96 Nate Schnugg (UGA) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
2. #18 Javier Garrapiz (UGA) def. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
3. Jamie Hunt (UGA) def. Mark Bowtell (LSU) 7-6, 6-3
4. Drake Bernstein (UGA) def. Stefan Szacinski (LSU) 2-6, 6-4, 6-4
5. Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Bo Seal (UGA) 6-4, 6-2
6. Christian Vitulli (UGA) def. Cody Loup (LSU) 6-2, 6-2
Doubles
1. Sebastian Carlsson/Neal Skupski (LSU) def. #39 Jamie Hunt/Nate Schnugg (UGA) 8-7 (7-1)
2. Drake Bernstein/Javier Garrapiz (UGA) def. Mark Bowtell/Roger Anderson (LSU) 9-8 (7-5)
3. Christian Vitulli/Bo Seal (UGA) def. Cody Loup/David Roberts (LSU) 8-4
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (6,5,1,3,4,2)