BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team will begin its quest for an eighth-straight Sweet 16 appearance on Saturday, as the Tigers will face the Texas Christian Horned Frogs at 2:30 p.m. in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the A&M Tennis Center in College Station, Texas.
“TCU is a tough opponent and they’ve had a share of success this season,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “They are ranked right around us and we’ve both had similar seasons this year. We know that we our feeling pretty good about ourselves right now and we know that they probably are too.”
LSU heads into the 2002 NCAA Tournament with a 10-13 overall record and as the 31st-ranked team in the nation. The Tigers faced arguably the toughest schedule in the nation this season with contests against 14 opponents ranked in the top 25. LSU defeated three top-25 teams and knocked off five eventual NCAA Tournament teams in dual-match play this season.
The Horned Frogs enter Saturday’s first round match with an overall record of 11-11 on the season and are in the midst of a two-match losing streak.
TCU lost consecutive contests in their season-ending competition at the Conference USA Tournament against both 25th-ranked South Florida, 4-1, and Louisville, 4-2.
“In the match against TCU, we are just going to have to see who has developed the most over the course of the year,” Brown said. “The team that keeps the focus and keeps it all together will win the match and that’s a hard thing to do knowing that the winner will have to beat Texas A&M on their home court to go to the Sweet 16.”
16th-ranked Texas A&M is hosting the regional and will face the Southern Jaguars in Saturday’s opening contest in College Station, Texas. Texas A&M finished the season with a 20-6 overall record on the season, while Southern qualified for the NCAA Tournament automatically by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference title. The Jaguars finished the season with a 15-12 overall record.
The Southeastern Conference is considered by many to be the strongest conference in the nation as all 12 SEC schools were invited to the NCAA Tournament. Vanderbilt, the lowest ranked SEC team at No. 43, will play Ohio State this weekend in first-round action in Lexington, Ky.
Six of the SEC’s 12 teams are hosting regional sites for the first and second rounds this weekend with No. 1-ranked Georgia leading the way.
Georgia is the defending national champion and will be joined as a host site by second-ranked Tennessee, No. 7 Kentucky, No. 9 Ole Miss, No. 12 Auburn and the 13th-seeded Florida Gators.
The LSU men’s tennis team will begin play in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. as the Tigers face off with the Texas Christian Horned Frogs in College Station, Texas.