ATHENS, Ga. — The 15th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team is making its seventh-straight NCAA Championship appearance on Saturday, as the 13th-seeded Tigers look to avenge an early season loss to the seventh-ranked Texas A&M Aggies at 7 a.m. Central Time in the round of 16 here in Athens, Ga.
“We played some really good tennis in the regional,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “Our guys played with a lot of mental strength and emotion and it was pretty neat to see. Now we just need to bottle that emotion and take it with us on the road, then we will be in good shape. We have to continue to play good tennis and feed off our fans that are there in Athens.”
The home-standing Tigers held off a feisty Texas Longhorn team, 4-2, in the regional final match to advance to their 17th NCAA Championship competition in 18 seasons. Last season, at the famed Dan Magill Tennis Complex here in Athens, Ga., LSU was defeated by Illinois, 4-3, in the opening round of the event.
Prior to facing Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, the Tigers
earned their eighth-straight regional victory with a 4-0 win over the Marist Red Foxes. LSU blanked Marist, which is located in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in front of a raucous home crowd at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The Tiger tennis team heads into Saturday’s first-round NCAA Championship match versus Texas A&M with an overall record of 16-7 on the season. The Aggies enter the contest with a 26-3 overall record and in the midst of a six-match winning streak.
Texas A&M advanced easily through its NCAA Regional competition held at the A&M Tennis Center by sweeping both Saint Bonaventure and Vanderbilt with identical 4-0 victories.
Earlier in the 2001 dual-match season, Texas A&M escaped with a nail-biting victory over the underdog Tigers, 4-3, in which the match was decided in a tiebreaker on the final singles court in College Station, Texas. With the win, the Aggies improved its lead in the all-time series between the schools to 16-12.
Despite this season’s earlier loss, the Tigers have had the advantage over Texas A&M in recent years. LSU has recorded victories in five of the last seven contests, but the two powerhouse tennis programs have never faced each other in post-season play.
The Tigers will be led in both singles and doubles play by senior Ajay Ramaswami and junior Dan Kiernan. Ramaswami enters the contest as the 12th-ranked player in the nation and with an impressive 27-14 overall record in No. 1 singles play.
Kiernan, a native of Newcastle, England, dominated the competition in No. 2 singles play this season by accumulating a dual-match record of 18-3 to earn the nation’s No. 48 ranking. He also teams with freshman Sebastian Rutka in No. 1 doubles play to form the 33rd-ranked doubles tandem in the country.
The combination has notched a 21-5 dual record so far this season.
The 15th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will be primed and ready for battle against the seventh-ranked Texas A&M Aggies bright and early on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament round of 16 here at the famed Dan Magill Tennis Center in Athens, Ga.