LAFAYETTE, La. – Four members of the LSU men’s tennis team are set to open up the 2016 fall schedule at the John Breaux Cajun Tennis Classic Sept. 22-25 at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
The Tigers will send Justin Butsch, Jordan Daigle, Julian Saborio and Rafael Wagner to compete against players from Kentucky, Louisiana-Lafayette, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Southern California, Texas and Texas Tech in the tournament that begins at 9 a.m. CT Thursday at the Cajun Courts.
“We would like to pick up where we left off last year at this event as Jordan and Justin each had very good matches,” head coach Jeff Brown said. “It will be exciting to get the two freshmen out on the courts and let them get a taste of college tennis.”
Daigle is seeded second and looks to defend his Cajun Classic singles title from 2015. The 35th-ranked senior will square off against Henry Ji of USC. No. 28 Butsch is seeded third and will face Leo Telles of Texas in the opening round.
Saborio and Wagner will both play in their first matches as Tigers as the freshmen take on Beck Pennington of Kentucky and Tristan Meraut of Oklahoma State, respectively.
Doubles play in the Cajun Classic begins Friday, and ITA’s 28th-ranked duo in Butsch and Daigle are the No. 1 seed. The duo will take on Louisiana-Lafayette’s Michael Kritzinger and Ole Miss’ Tim Sandkaulen.
Saborio and Wagner will also pair up and compete against Texas Tech’s Alex Sendegeya and Bjorn Thomson.
Butsch and Daigle begin their final year in Baton Rouge and look to carry momentum into this season. Butsch earned a spot on the All-SEC Second Team after notching a team-high 24 singles wins overall and an impressive 8-3 record in singles in conference play. Daigle earned doubles All-America honors for the second consecutive season and competed solely on court one in singles, compiling five victories against ranked opponents and finishing the season ranked 56th in the nation.
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 at www.facebook.com/lsutennis.