COLLEGE STATION, Texas — The LSU men’s tennis team frustrated the 30th-ranked Texas Christian Horned Frogs in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday, as the Tigers earned a convincing 4-0 victory here at the A&M Tennis Center in College Station, Texas.
“We played some really good tennis today,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “This team’s chemistry has allowed them to continue to get better, because sometimes when a team goes through some struggles they will fall apart, but this team has come together and is now playing some of its best tennis. This team has stayed tough and has improved the whole time.”
LSU (11-12) advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the eighth-consecutive season on Saturday and will face the hometown favorite
Texas A&M Aggies at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Texas A&M is the 16th-ranked team in the nation and cruised past Southern, 4-0, in the opening contest of the two-day regional.
With LSU leading the overall score of the contest, 3-0, the Tigers’ Bryan Fisher closed out the victory on court No. 4 by defeating TCU’s Alex Menichini in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. The win snapped a five-match losing streak against the Horned Frogs and improved Fisher’s overall singles record to 21-18.
TCU finished the 2002 dual-match season with an overall record of 11-12 and ended the year with a three-match losing streak. The Horned Frogs closed out the Conference USA Tournament by losing back-to-back matches against South Florida and Louisville.
LSU jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Saturday as the Tigers picked up the crucial doubles point with wins on courts No. 1 and No. 2. The opening point of the NCAA first round match was decided on court No. 2 with an 8-5 victory by the Tigers’ combination of Cory Ross and Sebastian Rutka. With the win, Ross and Rutka upped their overall record to 8-3 on the season.
The Tigers’ doubles team comprised of Dan Kiernan and Jason Hazley breezed by TCU’s duo of Jacob Martin and Alex Menichini, 8-3, on court No. 1 to earn LSU’s first victory in the doubles competition. The tandem’s handy win proved to be their eighth victory of the season and improved the pair’s overall record on the season to 8-5.
“We came out and played some good doubles on courts No. 1 and No. 2, and at court No. 3 we did a good job of not folding when we were down 6-1,” Brown said. “They (Brandon Nicholson and Fisher) were able to come back to 7-6 and that took some of the pressure off of the other teams. As a whole, all of our doubles teams looked very good today.”
Early on in singles play, LSU upped its overall lead in the contest to 3-0 as both Kiernan and Rutka were victorious over their TCU counterparts in straight sets.
The Tigers’ 52nd-ranked Kiernan picked up LSU’s first point of the singles contest by defeating the Horned Frogs’ 71st-ranked Toni Gordon, 6-2, 6-2, on court No. 1. With the easy win, Kiernan increased his winning streak to six-consecutive matches and upped his overall record on the season to 21-14.
In the No. 5 singles contest, Rutka recorded the Tigers’ second singles victory of the match. LSU’s scrappy sophomore from Krakow, Poland, gave the Tigers a crucial 3-0 lead by defeating TCU’s Daniel Scholten, 6-2, 6-3. Rutka improved to an 18-15 record with the victory.
The LSU men’s tennis team will square off with the 16th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at 1 p.m. here at the A&M Tennis Center in College Station, Texas. The Aggies head into the contest with an overall record of 21-6 and recorded a win over LSU earlier this season, 4-2, in Baton Rouge.
“Texas A&M is a team that we match up well against,” said Brown. “We are just going to have to overcome the environment. Texas A&M is one of the toughest places to play and we’re just going to have to focus on our matches and not the crowd. We don’t have to play the crowd, we play their team and we’ve played a lot of better teams this season, so we shouldn’t be overwhelmed by the situation.”
#31 LSU 4, #30 TCU 0
Doubles
1. Kiernan/Hazley (LSU) def. Martin/Menichini (TCU), 8-3
2. Ross/Rutka (LSU) def. Scholten/Sestini (TCU), 8-5*
3. Wajnberg/Gordon (TCU) def. Brandon Nicholson/Fisher (LSU), 8-6
Singles
1. #52 Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. #71 Toni Gordon (TCU), 6-2, 6-2
2. Peter Richman (LSU) vs. Daniel Wajnberg (TCU), suspended.
3. Jason Hazley (LSU) vs. Fabrizio Sestini (TCU), suspended.
4. Bryan Fisher (LSU) def. Alex Menichini (TCU), 6-2, 6-4*
5. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Daniel Scholten (TCU), 6-2, 6-3
6. Cory Ross (LSU) vs. Willy Gali (TCU), suspended.
Overall Records: LSU 11-13, TCU 11-12