BATON ROUGE — The 21st-ranked LSU men’s tennis team lost its fifth-consecutive match against a top-25 opponent on Friday, as the Tigers were dropped by No. 23 South Carolina, 5-2, at home at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“I think that when you lose a couple of hard-fought matches, you get stressed out a little bit, and I think that our guys are worried about winning so much that they forget to concentrate on the process,” said head coach Jeff Brown. “We want to win so badly that we are losing our focus in our matches, and against the kind of competition that we’ve been playing, you can’t let that happen.”
With the loss, LSU fell to an overall record of 3-5 on the season and dropped to an 0-3 mark in Southeastern Conference play. Last week, the Tigers were defeated by both Alabama and Auburn during a conference-opening road trip.
South Carolina improved to a dual-match record of 8-1 on Friday and upped its SEC record to 2-1. The Gamecocks opened conference play last week with a win over No. 11 Mississippi State and a loss versus the sixth-ranked Ole Miss Rebels.
LSU gained the early momentum in the match as the Tigers earned a 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point. On court No. 2, LSU’s combination of Bryan Fisher and Cory Ross clinched the opening point of the contest with an 8-6 victory over the Gamecocks’ duo of Carl Wermee and Seth Rose, 8-6.
Jason Hazley and Jesse Smatt paired up to defeat South Carolina’s tandem of Ben Atkinson and David Nelson on court No. 2. With the 8-6 win, Hazley and Smatt increased their winning streak to three-straight matches and improved to 7-3 on the season.
In singles play, the Gamecocks took complete control of the match with five-consecutive victories. South Carolina posted straight-set wins on courts No. 1-5.
LSU’s lone singles victory came on court No. 6 as Ross outlasted South Carolina’s Rodrigo Pacheco, 7-6(3), 3-6, 1-0(7). With the win, which was decided in a third-set super tiebreaker, Ross upped his overall record to 2-2 on the season.
The 21st-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will look to turn things around on Sunday, as the Tigers host the 18th-ranked Florida Gators at 1 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
#23 South Carolina 5, #21 LSU 2
Doubles
1. #29 Westman/Niculescu (USC) def. Kiernan/Rutka, 9-8(2).
2. Hazley/Smatt (LSU) def. Ben Atkinson/Nelson, 8-6.
3. Fisher/Ross (LSU) def. Wermee/Rose, 8-6.
Singles
1. Seth Rose (USC) def. Dan Kiernan, 6-1, 6-2.
2. Angelo Niculescu (USC) def. Peter Richman, 6-2, 6-2.
3. David Nelson (USC) def. Bryan Fisher, 7-6(4), 6-2.
4. Marcus Westman (USC) def. Jesse Smatt, 6-3, 6-0.
5. Carl Wermee (USC) def. Jason Hazley, 6-3, 6-2.
6. Cory Ross (LSU) def. Rodrigo Pacheco, 7-6(3), 3-6, 1-0(7).