BATON ROUGE – The 34th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will travel to College Station, Texas, for the opening rounds of the 2011 NCAA Tournament and will face No. 26 Indiana on Friday, May 13, at 11 a.m. in the first round, the NCAA announced Tuesday.
The Tigers (11-13) and the Hoosiers (23-7) will square off for the first time this season, with the winner advancing to take on the winner of the match between host ninth-ranked Texas A&M, the tournament’s No. 9 overall seed, and Alcorn State.
“We’ve played in College Station quite a few times so we’re very familiar with the venue and have experience playing there,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “Indiana has had a very good year, and we’re excited to play an opponent we haven’t played much in our history. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”
LSU took the courts two weeks ago at the Southeastern Conference Championships, where the seventh-seeded Tigers shut out Alabama 4-0 before falling to second-seeded and fifth-ranked Georgia 4-1 in the next round. The Hoosiers took down Purdue 4-2 in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament last weekend before dropping a 4-0 decision to Minnesota in the semifinals.
The Tigers have faced the Hoosiers only five times in school history, with Indiana holding a 3-2 advantage all-time. The two teams last met in 1999, with Indiana edging LSU 4-3 in a regular-season matchup.
LSU traveled to College Station back in January as part of the ITA Kickoff Classic, where the Tigers fell 4-0 to the Aggies and 4-1 to Auburn.
The SEC is well represented with nine total schools in the NCAA tournament as LSU is joined by Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Auburn, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State and Florida. In addition, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and Florida are each hosting as national seeds. With nine teams, the SEC is tied with the ACC for the most teams in the tournament by a conference.
The Tigers hold a 28-26 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament, and LSU has reached the tournament 26 times. Last year was the first time in Brown’s 13 seasons the Tigers failed to make the tournament. LSU reached the semifinals back-to-back in 1998 and 1999, Brown’s first two years at the helm.
The full interactive bracket for this year’s tournament can be found on the NCAA’s official website, www.NCAA.com.
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.