BATON ROUGE – After inclement weather postponed Thursday’s home dual matches, the LSU men’s tennis team will begin its home dual season at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium on Sunday at 11 a.m. CST against the 29th-ranked Rice Owls.
The Tigers (0-2) started the dual season last weekend at the ITA Kick-Off Classic in Lubbock, Texas, with a pair of tough losses to No. 15 Texas Tech and No. 31 Auburn.
The Owls enter Sunday’s match with a 5-1 record after defeating Tulane 4-2 on Friday.
“Rice has turned into a good rivalry for us,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We always go back and forth with them of late. They are a talented and deep team with experience throughout their lineup. We are looking for a good, hungry performance out of our team.”
Under Brown, LSU is 13-0 in home openers, including a 4-3 win over Rice to begin the home season in 2009.
Rice leads the all-time series with a 16-14-2 record over the Tigers, and the Owls won last year’s matchup 6-1 in Houston.
Several ranked players will take the courts this weekend for both teams. For LSU, junior Mark Bowtell enters the match ranked 102nd in the ITA rankings, while the doubles pair of Neal Skupski and Sebastian Carlsson are ranked 27th.
Rice’s Harry Fowler is ranked No. 44, and Philipp Seifert is ranked 121st in singles for the Owls.
Fans unable to attend the match can follow live stats at www.LSUSports.net/livestats.
Follow the LSU men’s tennis team on Twitter at @lsutennis and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lsuennis.