BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU men’s tennis team defeated Kentucky 4-1 on Sunday in Baton Rouge at W.T “Dub” Robinson Stadium as head coach Jeff Brown recorded his 279th victory of his career to unseat Jerry Simmons as the all-time winningest coach in LSU tennis history.
Brown’s milestone came on a day where LSU (11-1, 2-0 SEC) secured their best 12-match start since the 2004-05 season when they opened the year with a 10-2 record.
“It is not really something that you think about,” Brown said. “It is always about the team and getting the win. When you take a minute and think back about what it means to a lot of the other people that were a part of it, I understand the importance of it.”
The Tigers continued their blistering pace in doubles play as they won their eleventh doubles point of the season and maintained their undefeated record when earning the first point.
Junior Boris Arias and sophomore Jordan Daigle, ranked 57 in doubles play, notched a ranked victory over the Kentucky (6-8, 0-2 SEC) doubles team of juniors Beck Pennington and Kevin Lai, ranked 45.
“They complement each other very well,” Brown said of Arias and Daigle. “They have everything you need. They have very good energy. They are such great competitors and the doubles teams are really clicking.”
In singles, the Tigers got wins from senior Chris Simpson and junior Boris Arias before junior Andrew Korinek cliched the match for the Tigers on court six. Korinek has now won two consecutive matches after working his way back from a hip injury.
Despite Brown consistently focusing on the team as a whole, the Tigers knew what was at stake for their coach and worked hard to win the match for him.
“They became aware of it because there was some talk about it last match,” Brown said. “They were talking about doing it for me and I appreciate that. It is a great feeling and have a lot of appreciation to a lot of people.”
The match marks the end of a home stand that began on Jan. 31 against Purdue. The Tigers successfully defended Dub Stadium eight consecutive times as they hit the road for weekend matches against South Carolina (8-7, 0-2 SEC) and No. 7 Georgia (9-2, 2-0 SEC).
LSU faces South Carolina at 4:00 pm CST on Friday, Mar. 6 and they face Georgia at noon on Sunday, Mar. 8.
For up-to-date information and behind-the-scenes access on the Tigers, fans can follow the LSU men’s tennis team on Twitter and Instagram at @lsutennis and on Facebook atwww.facebook.com/lsutennis.