BATON ROUGE – The LSU men’s tennis team will face SEC competition at home for the first time this season when they square-off against the 22nd-ranked Ole Miss Rebels at 3 p.m. CST on Friday at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
The Tigers (4-7, 1-1 SEC) split last weekend’s conference games, dropping a 6-1 decision to the 15th-ranked Florida Gators on Friday in Gainesville before earning a 5-2 win over the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia on Sunday. LSU then faced-off against the nation’s best team, No. 1 Virginia, at home on Wednesday in a non-conference showdown. The Tigers played tough, but ultimately fell to the Cavs 5-2.
The Rebels (6-3, 1-1 SEC) also split their opening weekend of conference play, falling to No. 11 Kentucky 5-2 on Friday and blanking 23rd-ranked Vanderbilt 4-0 on Sunday in Oxford.
“I thought we played some of our best tennis yesterday against Virginia,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “Ole Miss is one of our biggest rivals so it should be a great matchup, and we really want to capitalize on our home court advantage this weekend.”
The Tigers are 3-1 at the “Dub” so far this season and will play seven of their next eight matches at home, while the Rebels enter the match with a 2-2 road record.
LSU is led in the rankings by the 17th-ranked doubles pair of senior Sebastian Carlsson and junior Neal Skupski, who are 8-2 in their last 10 dual matches at the No. 1 doubles spot. The Tiger tandem will square off against Ole Miss’ 5th-ranked pair of brothers Christoph and Marcel Theimann.
Skupski also enters the match ranked 69th in the singles polls, while Marcel Theimann checks in at No. 100 for the Rebels.
LSU’s two senior co-captains, Carlsson and Julien Gauthier, have come on strong for the Tigers lately. Gauthier is riding a three-match winning streak, including a big win over 85th-ranked Julen Uriguen of Virginia on Wednesday. Carlsson, a product of Uppsala, Sweden, enters the match on a two-match unbeaten streak and picked up a hard-fought win on Wednesday over Virginia’s Jarmere Jenkins, who is ranked 31st in the nation.
The Tigers have been unable to crack the Rebels recently as Ole Miss has won six-straight matches against the Tigers, including a 4-3 win in Oxford last season.
Following the match with the Rebels, the Tigers will square-off against SEC west foe Mississippi State on Sunday at 1p.m. at the “Dub.”
Fans not able to attend can view the live scoring for both matches at www.LSUsports.net/livestats.
For up-to-date information and behind the scenes access to the Tigers, fans can follow the LSU men’s team on Twitter @lsutennis and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lsutennis.