BATON ROUGE — The 11th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team rebounded from its loss earlier this week with a 5-2 victory over Texas A&M.
With the win LSU improves to 9-2 on the season.
“Our team showed a lot of character today to come back from the loss and get a win over a very good Texas A&M team,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown.
The Aggies were fresh off a 5-2 victory over Florida, who had just beaten LSU on Tuesday.
“Our win just goes to show you the tremendous amount of parity in college tennis. Within a 10 day stretch we beat Texas A&M who beat Florida, and Florida just beat us,” said Brown.
The Tigers swept the three doubles matches to earn a 1-0 lead heading into singles. The team of Ajay Ramaswami and Jesse Smatt beat Keith From and Ryan Newport 9-8 (4) to clinch the point at No. 2.
Tom Hand and Anthony Mateljan, playing in place of the injured Ed Rubin, won at No. 3 over Cody Hubbell and Jarin Skube 8-5.
In a mild upset at No. 1, the 21st-ranked team of Michal Chmela and Dan Kiernan knocked off 12th-ranked Shuon Madden and Dimitru Caradima 9-8 (3). Madden and Caradima were ranked No. 1 all of last season.
With momentum in singles, LSU quickly increased its lead to 3-0 with wins at Nos. 3 and 6. Mateljan won first at No. 6, a 6-3, 6-2 win over Skube. Ramaswami then followed with a 6-2, 6-3 victory at No. 3.
“Ajay really stepped up for us in place of Ed,” said Brown. “Today he played at the level he is capable of and that bodes very well for us the rest of the season.”
The Aggies fought back with wins at Nos. 1 and 4 as third-ranked Madden beat 35th-ranked Chmela 7-5, 7-5 on court one. Hubbell took out Kiernan 6-3, 6-4 at the No. 4 spot.
However, LSU clinched the match when Jesse Smatt completed his straight-set win over Ryan Newport at No. 5. Smatt won 6-4, 7-6.
Hand, ranked 20th, then won his 100th career match at No. 2 to seal the final margin of victory. His 6-2, 5-7, 1-0 (5) win was over Dimitru Caradima.
LSU faces Vanderbilt on Saturday in its first road match of the
season.
#11 LSU 5, #14 Texas A&M 2
Baton Rouge, La.
March 16, 2000
SINGLES
No. 1 – #3 Shoun Madden (TAMU) def. #35 Michal Chmela (LSU), 7-5, 7-5
No. 2 – #20 Tom Hand (LSU) def. Dimitru Caradima (TAMU), 6-2, 7-5, 1-0 (5)
No. 3 – Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. Keith From (TAMU), 6-2, 6-3
No. 4 – Cody Hubbell (TAMU) def. Dan Kiernan (LSU), 6-3, 6-4
No. 5 – Jesse Smatt (LSU) def. Ryan Newport (TAMU), 6-4, 7-6 (2)
No. 6 – Anthony Mateljan (LSU) def. Jarin Skube (TAMU), 6-3, 6-2
DOUBLES
No. 1 – #21 Kiernan-Chmela (LSU) def. #12 Caradima-Madden (TAMU), 9-8 (3)
No. 2 – Smatt-Ramaswami (LSU) def. From-Newport (TAMU), 9-8 (4)
No. 3 – Hand-Mateljan (LSU) def. Hubbell-Skube (TAMU), 8-5