BATON ROUGE, La. – With the sting of Friday’s narrow loss at the hands of No. 13 Ole Miss fresh in their minds, the LSU men’s tennis team roared out of the gate on their way to a 6-1 victory over No. 53 Arkansas on Sunday in Baton Rouge.
The Tigers (15-4, 5-3 SEC) were focused early as the they secured the doubles point for the seventeenth time this season. Determined to avoid another disappointment, LSU took five of the first six sets against Arkansas (11-11, 1-7 SEC) to set the tone early.
“In order to get the win today we had to put [the Ole Miss match] behind us,” said head coach Jeff Brown. “It can either make you crumble or it can make you tougher. I told the guys that I felt we were the tougher team and that it could help us grow.”
The Razorbacks did not give up easily as they forced a third set on courts one, three and five before junior Andrew Korinek clinched the match-winning point for the Tigers on court five.
Coach Brown said the team used close matches against Alabama and Ole Miss to come together and find the toughness required to succeed as the season winds down.
“We are certainly a bunch of guys that are fighting and we have a lot of respect for each other,” Brown said. “These last three matches really pulled this team together. You have to go through some adversity in order to grow and we certainly had that on Friday and bounced back perfectly today.”
With the win, LSU moves to 17-3 in doubles dual play on the season. The Tigers are 15-2 in matches where they win the doubles point, with the only losses coming against No. 5 Georgia and Ole Miss.
Coach Brown said the key to their doubles success is finding consistency in the lineup, which is lead by sophomore Jordan Daigle and junior Boris Arias as the court-one team. The duo is ranked No. 20 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.
“It is nice to know that you are going to play with the same guy win or lose,” Daigle said. “You develop a chemistry with your partner over time and I definitely think our doubles teams are doing very well right now.”
Next up for LSU is a Friday road trip to Gainesville for a match against No. 20 Florida (10-6, 5-3 SEC) at 4 p.m. CST.
“Our level is good enough to win against anyone,” Brown said. “We can draw on the Alabama match as our last road match, we can draw on the level we played against Ole Miss and we can draw on how many people won and got confidence today.”
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.
Arkansas men’s tennis vs LSU
Mar 29, 2015 at Baton Rouge, La.
(Dub Stadium)
#24 LSU 6, #53 Arkansas men’s tennis 1
Singles competition
1. #75 Jordan Daigle (LSU) def. #81 Giammarco Micolani (ARK) 6-2, 1-6, 7-5
2. Chris Simpson (LSU) def. Jovan Parlic (ARK) 6-4, 6-0
3. Boris Arias (LSU) def. William Albanese (ARK) 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
4. Justin Butsch (LSU) def. Johan den Toom (ARK) 6-2, 6-2
5. Andrew Korinek (LSU) def. Santiago Munoz (ARK) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
6. David Herrerias (ARK) def. Simon Freund (LSU) 7-6, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #20 Boris Arias/Jordan Daigle (LSU) vs. Jovan Parlic/Giammarco Micolani (ARK) 3-3, unfinished
2. Tam Trinh/Eric Perez (LSU) def. William Albanese/Johan den Toom (ARK) 6-2
3. Chris Simpson/Justin Butsch (LSU) def. David Herrerias/Juan Marino (ARK) 6-1
Match Notes:
Arkansas men’s tennis 11-11 (1-7 SEC); National ranking #53
LSU 15-4 (5-3 SEC); National ranking #24
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (4,2,5,1,3,6)