BATON ROUGE – The 45th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will begin the 2011 dual season in Lubbock, Texas, against 15th-ranked Texas Tech on Saturday at 12 p.m. CST as part of the third annual ITA Kick-off weekend.
This weekend marks the first dual match action for the Tigers, while the Red Raiders (2-0) opened their dual season last weekend in Las Vegas with wins over No. 55 UC-Irvine and No. 66 UNLV.
“Texas Tech is a very talented team,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “They had a very good year last year and they have lots of people back. We will play two very good matches this weekend, and the team is very excited to get underway.”
Texas Tech is one of 15 host sites for the Kick-off weekend. SEC West foe Auburn, ranked 31st in the nation, and No. 19 California are the other two teams competing in Lubbock, and they will square-off on Saturday after the LSU vs. Texas Tech match.
Both winners from Saturday will compete on Sunday, with the winner receiving an invitation to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash., in February. The two losers will also play each other on Sunday.
Several highly ranked players will be on the courts this weekend for the four teams, including Texas Tech’s Gonzalo Escobar, who is currently ranked 20th in the nation in singles, Cal’s 50th-ranked Christoffer Konigsfeldt, and 65th-ranked Time Hewitt of Auburn.
For the Tigers, Mark Bowtell is ranked 120th in singles, and the duo of Sebastian Carlsson and Neal Skupski are the 27th best doubles team in the country.
LSU is undefeated against the Red Raiders all time, with the Tigers winning the only three meetings between the two teams. The teams last met in 2009, with LSU winning 4-3.
ITA Kick-off Weekend
Jan. 29-30, 2010
Lubbock, Texas
McLeod Tennis Center
Jan. 29
LSU vs. Texas Tech, 12 p.m.
Auburn vs. California, 3 p.m.