BATON ROUGE – The No. 35 LSU men’s tennis team used a come-from-behind victory from junior Mark Bowtell on Court 5 to seal a thrilling 4-3 win over No. 41 Nebraska on Tuesday at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
To start the match, the Tigers swept all three courts in doubles to take an early 1-0 lead. The LSU pair of senior Julien Gauthier and sophomore Olivier Borsos started off strong with a commanding 6-1 lead on Court 3, but Nebraska’s Calin Paar and Robert Schulze battled back to tie it at 6-6. However, the LSU pair wouldn’t let the match slip away as they re-captured the momentum and won the next two games to take the match 8-6.
Meanwhile, the sophomore duo of Roger Anderson and Stefan Szacinski were in a back-and-forth battle on Court 2 against Nebraska’s Sebastian Florczyk and Andrew Stenger. After a pair of early breaks from both sides, each team held serve until the score was tied 7-7. With the doubles point on the line, Anderson and Szacinski rattled-off the final two games to clinch the 9-7 win and give the Tigers the 1-0 lead.
At the top doubles spot, senior Sebastian Carlsson, who sat out the last match against Georgia with a wrist injury, returned to team-up with junior Neal Skupski, and the 12th-ranked duo finished-off the No. 65 Cornhusker pair of Chris Aumueller and Benedikt Lindheim 8-5 to complete the doubles sweep.
Carlsson then proved his wrist is no longer bothering him as he was first off the courts in singles with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Tom Blackwell on Court 5 to put LSU up 2-0. Skupski then extended the lead to 3-0 as he dispatched Paar 6-3, 6-3 at No. 2 singles.
Nebraska wouldn’t go down without a fight as the Cornhuskers picked up a pair of three-set wins to cut the lead to 3-2. Florczyk downed Gauthier 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 on Court 6, and 81st-ranked Aumueller rallied from down 4-1 in the third set to defeat Borsos 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 on Court 1.
All eyes then focused to Courts 3 and 5, which were both in third sets, to see who would seal the match.
After dropping the first set to Stenger on Court 5, Bowtell was down 4-1 in the second set. But the County Wicklow, Ireland, native stormed back and sent the set to a tiebreaker, where he clinched the set 7-6 (4).
Over on Court 3, Szacinski, who won his first set 7-6 (1), fell in the second set to Lindheim 6-3 to send his match to a third set.
In the deciding set on Court 5, Stenger quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead, but Bowtell rattled-off the next five games to take a commanding 5-2 lead. After Stenger won the next game to cut it 5-3, Bowtell came through in the clutch to close out the match 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 and seal the victory for LSU at 4-2.
With the match decided, Szacinski, who wasn’t feeling well, retired his match Court 3 to put the final score at 4-3.
“It was two very competitive teams going at it on a hot day today,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “Emotions were running high, but Bowtell got a win under pressure to seal it for us. It was a total team effort today. The crowd was loud and both teams fought hard, it was a great college tennis match.”
The win improves LSU’s record to 7-9 overall, while Nebraska falls to 12-5 on the season. The Tigers are now 6-2 at home in 2011, including ranked wins over No. 16 Michigan, No. 29 Ole Miss and No. 41 Rice
The match was the first ever meeting between the two schools, and LSU now holds a 1-0 advantage all-time. The contest with the Cornhuskers also concluded the non-conference schedule for the Tigers, who will finish out the rest of the season against only conference competition.
LSU will return to action on Saturday against SEC power Tennessee, who is ranked No. 2 in the nation, at 1 p.m. in the “Dub.”
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.
#35 LSU 4, #41 Nebraska 3
Singles competition
1. #81 Chris Aumueller (NU) def. Olivier Borsos (LSU) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
2. #92 Neal Skupski (LSU) def. Calin Paar (NU) 6-3, 6-3
3. Benedikt Lindheim (NU) def. Stefan Szacinski (LSU) 6-7 (1-7), 6-3, 2-2, retired
4. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) def. Tom Blackwell (NU) 6-3, 6-2
5. Mark Bowtell (LSU) def. Andrew Stenger (NU) 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3
6. Sebastian Florczyk (NU) def. Julien Gauthier (LSU) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #12 Sebastian Carlsson/Neal Skupski (LSU) def. #65 Chris Aumueller/Benedikt Lindheim (NU) 8-5
2. Stefan Szacinski/Roger Anderson (LSU) def. Sebastian Florczyk/Andrew Stenger (NU) 9-7
3. Julien Gauthier/Olivier Borsos (LSU) def. Calin Paar/Robert Schulze (NU) 8-6
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (4,2,6,1,5,3)