COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The LSU men’s tennis team’s run in the NCAA tournament came to end in the second round on Saturday as the 34th-ranked Tigers fell to the ninth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies 4-0 in front of 527 fans at the George P. Mitchell Tennis Center.
The Aggies (29-5) advance to the Round of 16, which begins May 19 in Palo Alto, Calif. The Tigers finish the season 12-14.
“We’re proud of the season that we had,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “You never want it to end, but we accomplished a lot of our goals and we made major improvements in many areas. We’ve set ourselves up nicely for next season.”
For the second straight match the Tigers fell behind 1-0 early after dropping the doubles point. The LSU sophomore duo of Stefan Szacinski and Roger Anderson won their second doubles match in as many days as they were first off the courts with an 8-6 win over the 66th-ranked Aggie pair of Junior Ore and Alexey Grigov on Court 2.
Texas A&M evened up the doubles matches as the Aggies’ Alexey Klegou and Colin Hoover downed the Tigers’ Julien Gauthier and Olivier Borsos 8-6 on Court 3. The early point rested on the Top-10 matchup on Court 1 between the No. 8 Tiger tandem of senior Sebastan Carlsson and junior Neal Skupski and the fourth-ranked Aggie duo of Austin Krajicek and Jeff Dadamo. Carlsson and Skupski notched a win over the Texas A&M twosome earlier in the year, but Krajicek and Dadamo got their revenge with an 8-5 win to seal the 1-0 lead for the Aggies.
A&M continued to put the pressure on the Tigers by taking five out of six first sets to start singles play, and increased the lead to 2-0 as No. 84 Skupski fell 6-1, 6-1 to 17th-ranked Krajieck on Court 1.
Despite the first set struggles, the Tigers began to fight back as Borsos and Szacinski sent their matches to third sets, and Carlsson rallied from down 4-1 in the second set to send his match to a tiebreak.
A&M wouldn’t be swayed as Ore downed Gauthier 6-2, 6-4 on Court 6 to increase their lead to 3-0, and Carlsson couldn’t pull through in the tiebreak on Court 4 as he fell 6-2, 7-6 (2) to the hands of 94th-ranked Klegou, which clinched the Aggies 4-0 win.
At the time of the clinch, Borsos was leading 5-3 in the third set of his match and Bowtell was up 4-3 in his second set. Szacinski was down 5-2 in the third set on his court when the match went final.
“It was a close doubles point that really could have changed the complexion of the match,” Brown said. “As it turns out we were clawing our way back in, but ultimately there were too many holes to plug. Texas A&M played a good match.”
The match was the second meeting of the season between the two teams, as the then-14th-ranked Aggies earned a 6-1 victory over the Tigers in College Station on February 16.
LSU is now 29-27 all-time record in the NCAA Tournament.
The season isn’t over for two Tigers, as Skupski and Carlsson were one of 32 doubles teams selected to compete in the NCAA Tennis Championships, which take place May 25-30 at the Taub Tennis Center in Palo Alto following the completion of the team tournament. The duo were an at-large selection by the committee.
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.
2011 NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament
Second Round
College Station, Texas at George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
#9 Texas A&M 4, #43 LSU 0
Singles competition
1. #17 Austin Krajicek (TAMU) def. #87 Neal Skupski (LSU) 6-1, 6-1
2. #31 Jeff Dadamo (TAMU) vs. Olivier Borsos (LSU) 6-1, 2-6, 3-5, unfinished
3. Alexey Grigorov (TAMU) vs. Stefan Szacinski (LSU) 3-6, 6-2, 5-2, unfinished
4. #94 Alexis Klegou (TAMU) def. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) 6-2, 7-6 (7-2)
5. Colin Hoover (TAMU) vs. Mark Bowtell (LSU) 6-2, 3-4, unfinished
6. Junior Ore (TAMU) def. Julien Gauthier (LSU) 6-2, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #4 Austin Krajicek/Jeff Dadamo (TAMU) def. #8 Neal Skupski/Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) 8-5
2. Stefan Szacinski/Roger Anderson (LSU) def. #66 Junior Ore/Alexey Grigorov (TAMU)
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (1,6,4)