BATON ROUGE — The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team looks to record its third-straight victory on Wednesday, as the Tigers face the Arkansas Razorbacks at 1 p.m. in Fayetteville, Ark.
“We’re playing a very good team in Arkansas tomorrow,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “They (Arkansas) played very well on Monday in a win against Oklahoma State, who was the 17th-ranked team in the nation, and I’m sure that they will step it up against us tomorrow.”
LSU enters Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference match with a 7-2 overall
record and a 1-1 mark versus conference opponents. The Tigers were victorious in their previous-two matches by recording identical 6-1 wins over both Southern Mississippi and Vanderbilt at home in the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The Razorbacks head into the SEC-dual match after upsetting 17th-ranked Oklahoma State on Monday by the score of 4-2. With the win, Arkansas posted its first victory over a top-20 team this season and improved to an overall record of 10-3.
Arkansas possesses a 1-3 mark versus SEC opponents this year. The Razorback tennis team defeated Vanderbilt at home, 4-2, but dropped its remaining conference matches to No. 8 Georgia (6-1), No. 9 Ole Miss (4-1) and No. 10
Florida (5-2). Monday’s match against LSU will mark Arkansas’ fourth-straight match versus a team ranked among the top-20 teams in the nation.
“It’s definitely going to be a good match,” Brown stated. “Right now, we’re kind of in the dark about whether we’re going to play indoors or outdoors, but I know that our team is going to be prepared for either one. We are going to be ready to play on Wednesday and we’ll accept the challenge.”
LSU can boast the services of both the eighth and 85th-ranked singles players in the nation, as well as the No. 28 doubles team in the country. Ajay Ramaswami, the Tiger senior from Mumbai, India, is the No. 8 player in the nation, while Jesse Smatt holds the No. 85 position.
The 28th-ranked combination of Dan Kiernan and Sebastian Rutka anchor the Tigers in doubles play with an overall record of 11-3.
The Razorbacks’ Oskar Johansson is the No. 1 singles player in the nation and has accumulated a 23-5 overall record this season. He will be flanked on Wednesday by the nation’s 36th-ranked player in Henrik Tofft. Tofft owns a 10-6 record, but is only 3-5 in the No. 2 singles competition.
Last season, LSU was victorious in its annual contest versus Arkansas, 5-2, in Baton Rouge to increase its winning streak to 10-straight matches over the Razorbacks. The Tigers have not been defeated by Arkansas since a 2-7 loss at the hands of the Razorbacks in 1986.
The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will face the Arkansas Razorbacks at 1 p.m. on Wednesday in Fayetteville, Ark.