BATON ROUGE – The 34th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will square off against No. 18 Auburn in an SEC West showdown on Friday at 3 p.m. CDT at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
The LSU Tigers (7-10, 2-4 SEC) are ranked fourth in the SEC Western Division, and split a pair of home matches last week against 41st-ranked Nebraska and No. 2 Tennessee. LSU notched a 4-3 victory over the Cornhuskers last Thursday before falling to the Vols 4-3 on Saturday.
Auburn (11-6, 3-3 SEC) is currently ranked third in the West and upset No. 14 Kentucky 4-1 last weekend in Auburn.
“Auburn has become one of our toughest rivals over the last several years,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We have a score to settle with them because they’ve won the last few matches, so this looks to be a hard-fought match.”
The meeting will be the second of the season for the two teams as Auburn rallied for a 4-1 win over the Tigers back on Jan. 30 at the ITA Kick Off Classic in Lubbock, Texas. LSU captured the doubles point and five out of six first sets before Auburn charged back to win four-straight singles matches for the victory.
Auburn is led in the rankings by No. 15 Tim Puetz, who is 11-3 this season playing at the top singles spot. Alex Stamchev is the other ranked Tiger and enters the match with a No. 118 billing. In doubles, Stamchev and Andreas Mies combine to create the 45th-ranked duo in the nation.
The 10th-ranked doubles pair of senior Sebastian Carlsson and junior Neal Skupski continues to pace the LSU Tigers, as the tandem is 12-4 on the year on Court 1. Individually, Skupski is ranked No. 82 while Carlsson checks in at No. 124.
Auburn has won six-straight matches against the Fighting Tigers dating back to 2005, including a 5-2 win last year in Auburn, but LSU leads the all-time series 30-15.
Admission to all home matches is free. Fans unable to make it out to the “Dub” can view the live stats 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.