BATON ROUGE — In a match that epitomized the 2002 season for the LSU men’s tennis team on Wednesday, the Tigers were defeated by the Southern Methodist Mustangs, 4-3, in a third-set tiebreaker on the final court of contest.
“It was one of those great college tennis matches where nobody really deserved to lose,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “I feel bad for our team for losing another close match like this, but when you’re having a tough year, you find yourself on the short end of the stick a lot more than usual. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We just need to rebound from this and fight hard in our next match on Friday.”
With the overall score of the contest knotted at 3-3, SMU’s Lukas Senczyszyn overcame a one-set deficit on court No. 3 to hold off the Tigers’ Jason Hazley in a three-set marathon, 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5). In the second set of the three-hour match, Senczyszyn trailed 4-1 in the tiebreaker before reeling off six-straight points to win the set. Senczyszyn’s 13th win of the dual-match season secured SMU’s second-consecutive victory.
The Tigers fell to an overall record of 5-11 on the season and dropped to a 5-3 mark against non-conference opponents. Southern Methodist improved to a 13-11 overall record on the season and upped its non-conference mark to 11-11.
LSU found itself with an early 1-0 deficit on Wednesday as the Mustangs earned the doubles point with victories on all three courts. SMU’s tandem of Senczyszyn and Krystian Pfeiffer clinched the vital point with an 8-4 win over the Tigers’ Bryan Fisher and Jesse Smatt on court No. 2.
“I thought that the team responded with a good level of play in singles after playing a sloppy doubles point,” Brown said. “They bounced back, fought hard and took their game to another level in the singles matches. It’s always tough to lose when it comes down to the final match, but we have to look past it and get ready for Mississippi State on Friday.”
In singles play, LSU quickly evened the score at 1-1 with a win on court No. 4 as Fisher knocked off the Mustangs’ Gwinyai Chingoka in straight sets. With the 6-4, 6-2 win, Fisher improved to an overall record of 17-15 on the season.
The Tigers’ 87th-ranked Dan Kiernan added LSU’s second point of the afternoon as he rallied past Southern Methodist’s Johan Brunstrom, 7-6(3), 6-3, on court No. 2. The win upped Kiernan’s record to 15-13.
With SMU leading the overall score of the non-conference match 3-2, the Tigers’ sophomore from Krakow, Poland, Sebastian Rutka, withstood a third-set comeback from Ryan Mauck to earn a crucial 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory on court No. 6. The win evened the overall score of the match at 3-3 and increased Rutka’s dual-match record to 7-4.
The LSU men’s tennis team will next be in action on Friday as the Tigers remain at home and host the Mississippi State Bulldogs at 4 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
SMU 4, LSU 3
Doubles
1. #9 Brunstrom/Eric Cohn (SMU) def. Kiernan/Hazley (LSU), 8-5
2. Mauck/Chingoka (SMU) def. Cory Ross/Rutka (LSU), 8-3
3. Pfeiffer/Senczyszyn (SMU) def. Fisher/Smatt (LSU), 8-4*
Singles
1. #26 Krystian Pfeiffer (SMU) def. Peter Richman (LSU), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
2. #87 Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. Johan Brunstrom (SMU), 7-6(3), 6-3
3. Alexis Rudzinski (SMU) def. Jesse Smatt (LSU), 6-3, 6-3
4. Bryan Fisher (LSU) def. Gwinyai Chingoka (SMU), 6-4, 6-2
5. Lukas Senczyszyn (SMU) def. Jason Hazley (LSU), 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(5)*
6. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Ryan Mauck (SMU), 4-6, 6-2, 7-5
Overall Records: SMU 13-11, LSU 5-11