BATON ROUGE — The 13th-seeded LSU men’s tennis team shutout the Marist Red Foxes, 4-0, on Saturday to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament here at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“We played well today,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We didn’t really have any letdowns, and we went out there and played well enough to win in quick fashion. Our players didn’t take Marist for granted and they went out and played with great intensity. A couple of our guys played very well today and we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s match.”
The Tigers will face Texas, who outhit Florida Atlantic for a 4-1 victory in the afternoon match, in Sunday’s second round.
“At this point in the season, you just want to try and play better and better every time out,” said Texas coach Michael Center. “Obviously, LSU has a great program and a great tradition. It is going to be a heck of a test for us.”
LSU earned its eighth-consecutive NCAA regional victory on Saturday as the Tigers John Gray Pou clinched the win in No. 5 singles play by defeating Marist’s Patrick Dahnert, 6-0, 6-2. The win was the first postseason victory of Pou’s career and he improved his overall record to 8-9 on the season.
With the win, the Tigers advanced to their third-straight NCAA Tournament second-round match and the team upped its dual-match record to 15-7. Marist, the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Conference champions, finished the season with an overall record of 17-8 and lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the third year in a row.
“We were excited to play in this match today,” said Marist head coach Tim Smith. “Even though we lost, we’re happy to have played in our third NCAA Tournament and we feel that these experiences will help us with our recruiting down the line. It was also good to play in a nice stadium and against some highly ranked players.”
LSU jumped out to an early lead in the match by picking up the doubles points with wins on courts No. 1 and 2. The Tigers’ 33rd-ranked combination of Dan Kiernan and Sebastian Rutka were victorious on court No. 1 over Marist’s duo of Patrick Hofer and Michael Sowter, 8-2.
Ajay Ramaswami and Anthony Mateljan scored the victory on court two by out-hitting Alex Ilchanko and Victor Sapeznikov, 8-4.
Once in singles play, LSU took over the match en route to the win. Ramaswami beat Hofer, 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1 singles. Sanjin Sadovich then downed Sapeznikov at No. 4, 6-2, 6-0 to set up Pou’s victory.
Texas, a #17-32 seed, had to survive an upset bid by #33-48 Florida Atlantic, who won the Trans America Athletic Conference this season, to advance. The Longhorns lost the first set in three of the six singles matches and won squeaked by in tiebreakers in two others.
“I really expected a tough match based on their results,” said Texas head coach Michael Center. “They had beaten a Rice team 4-1 that we have a lot of respect for, so we didn’t overlook them.”
After handily winning the doubles point with victories at Nos. 1 and 3, Texas found itself in a battle in singles. Ron Kloppert trailed 5-2 at No. 4 in the first set and rallied to win the set in a tiebreaker and then eventually clinch the match with a 7-6 (6), 6-4.
On court one, 35th-ranked Jean Simon survived an upset bid by TAAC Player of the Year, Doug Devriendt, 7-6 (3), 6-3. The Longhorns’ other point came at No. 3 where Jose Zarhi downed Martin Jirak, 6-3, 6-3.
The Owls scored on court five where Sandro Spotti beat Will Clinton, 7-6 (5), 6-0.
Action on courts two and six was suspended with each court having just begun its third set.
NCAA Tournament
First Round
Baton Rouge, La.
May 12, 2001
#13 LSU 4, #49-64 Marist 0
Doubles
No. 1- #33 Kiernan/Rutka (LSU) def. Hofer/Sowter (Marist), 8-2
No. 2 – Ramaswami/Mateljan (LSU) def. Ilchenko/Sapeznikov (Marist), 8-4
No. 3 – Sadovich/Smatt (LSU) def. Dahnert/Delgado (Marist), suspended
Singles
No. 1 – #12 Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) def. Patrick Hofer (Marist), 6-2, 6-0
No. 2 – #48 Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. Michael Sowter (Marist), suspended
No. 3 – Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Alex Ilchenko (Marist), suspended
No. 4 – Sanjin Sadovich (LSU) def. Victor Sapeznikov (Marist), 6-2, 6-0
No. 5 – John Gray Pou (LSU) def. Patrick Dahnert (Marist), 6-0, 6-2
No. 6 – John Sruk (LSU) def. Juan Delgado (Marist), suspended
#17-32 Texas 4, #33-48 Florida Atlantic 1
Doubles
No. 1 – #37 Kloppert/Simon (UT) def. Bilgin/Jirak (FAU), 8-3
No. 2 – Zarhi/Edmondson (UT) vs. Paiz/Devriendt (FAU), suspended
No. 3 – Ryan Haymond/Domanski (UT) def. Fabio Faerman/Spotti (FAU), 8-2
Singles
No. 1 – #35 Jean Simon (UT) def. Doug Devriendt (FAU), 7-6 (3), 6-3
No. 2 – #99 Craig Edmondson (UT) vs. Yalin Bilgin (FAU), suspended
No. 3 – Jose Zarhi (UT) def. Martin Jirak (FAU), 6-3, 6-3
No. 4 – Ron Kloppert (UT) def. Andre Buzzoni (FAU), 7-6 (6), 6-4
No. 5 – Sandro Spotti (FAU) def. Will Clinton (UT), 7-6 (5), 6-0
No. 6 – Michael Domanski (UT) vs. Christian Paiz (FAU), suspended