BATON ROUGE – After splitting a pair of weekend SEC matches, the LSU men’s tennis team will step out of conference for a Thursday dual match against No. 16 Michigan at 1 p.m. CDT at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
The 44th-ranked Tigers enter the match with a 5-8 record, and are 1-2 in the last three matches of the current four-match home-stand. LSU posted its highest ranked-win of the season last Friday with a 4-2 win over No. 22 Ole Miss, but then dropped a close 5-2 match to 38th-ranked Mississippi State on Sunday.
Michigan holds a 7-4 record and has rattled-off four-straight road match victories, but the Wolverines are coming off a tough 4-3 home-loss to No. 27 Tulsa last Friday.
“We are looking to build off of last weekend,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “I thought we played at our highest level, especially on Friday against Ole Miss, but we kind of ran out of gas towards the end. I think the guys are rejuvenated and excited about playing a high-caliber team like Michigan and the opportunity it provides.”
Michigan has picked up three Top-25 wins this season with victories over No. 10 Duke, No. 19 Washington and No. 21 Notre Dame. They have also notched wins over 30th-ranked Virginia Tech and 34th-ranked Wake Forest.
The Wolverines are lead by a pair of ranked singles players, including 20th-ranked Evan King, who is 10-1 at the top singles spot this season, and No. 60 Jason Jung. King and Jung also combine to make the 18th best doubles pair in the nation.
The 12th-ranked tandem of senior Sebastian Carlsson and junior Neal Skupski guide the Tigers at the top doubles spot. The duo has been hard to beat as they enter play at 10-3 this season on Court 1, and are 8-2 in their last 10 matches. Skupski is the long ranked Tiger in the singles poll, checking in at No. 91.
The two teams met earlier this year at the Key Biscayne Invitational, which was an individual tournament and did not use team scoring. Carlsson, senior Julien Gauthier and sophomores Olivier Borsos and Roger Anderson all picked up singles wins for the Tigers, and Carlsson and Skupski picked up a doubles victory.
LSU is 3-0 all-time against Michigan, and the teams last squared-off in 2006 with LSU earning a 5-2 victory in Ann Arbor.
Livestats will be provided for the match 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.