BATON ROUGE — The 18th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team is set to face its toughest challenge of the 2003 season on Thursday as the Tigers host the top-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini at 4 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“Anytime you play against a top team like Illinois, it is a good opportunity to pick up a huge win, and for us that would give us a better chance to host (an NCAA Regional),” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We’ve approached every one of our big matches the same way that we’ve approached all of them. We’re trying to win every match that we play, but the significance of beating a top team would have a major impact on what the NCAA committee would see.”
LSU heads into Thursday’s non-conference matchup with an overall record of 11-7 on the season and with a lot of experience playing against highly-ranked opponents. The Tigers have already faced four top-10 ranked teams this season and have competed against nine opponents currently ranked among the top-20 teams in the nation.
During the 2003 dual-match season, LSU has defeated No. 12 Kentucky, 4-2, No. 16 Texas, 4-3, and the 17th-ranked Auburn Tigers, 6-1. All three of the Tigers’ upset victories this season have come at home in Baton Rouge. LSU owns a 4-2 record against ranked opponents while playing at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Illinois enters Thursday’s top-20 showdown with a perfect 18-0 record and an unblemished 5-0 mark in road contests. The Fighting Illini, who earned their first National Indoor Championship earlier this spring, swept Penn State, 7-0, on Sunday to improve to 6-0 against Big Ten rivals. The shutout proved to be Illinois’ 12th of the season.
“They (Illinois) are without a doubt the best team in the nation right now,” Brown said. “In the past, people criticized them for just being an indoor team, but this year they’ve already come outside and proven that they are a very good outdoors team as well. I think that this is by far their best opportunity to win a national championship.”
LSU will be led in Thursday’s match by two nationally-ranked singles players and the 21st-ranked doubles team in the country.
Peter Richman, the Tigers’ sophomore from Toronto, Canada, is the nation’s 52nd-ranked singles player and has recorded six victories over ranked opponents. The tenacious lefthander owns a 15-14 overall record on the season and a 4-3 mark at the No. 1 singles position.
The Tigers’ Cory Ross comes into Thursday’s match as the 117th-ranked singles player in the nation. Ross, a native of Littleton, Colo., leads the team in victories and has a 20-10 singles record this season. LSU’s junior co-captain owns a 13-5 dual record and has accumulated a 5-2 mark at both the No. 5 and No. 6 singles positions.
The top-ranked Illini boast six nationally-ranked singles players and three top-50 ranked doubles teams. Illinois’ Amer Delic is the fourth-ranked player in the country and is closely followed by No. 8 Brian Wilson, No. 13 Phil Stolt and the 14th-ranked Rajeev Ram. The Illini’s Ryler Deheart and Michael Calkins are also nationally ranked at No. 79 and No. 122, respectively.
In doubles play, Illinois possesses the No. 6 ranked tandem comprised of Delic and Calkins, as well as No. 16 Wilson and Ram, and the 35th-ranked combination of Stolt and Deheart.
LSU and Illinois have faced off against each other six times since the 1937 season. The Tigers won the first four contests, but have dropped the last two matchups in 2000 and 2002. LSU was edged by the Illini, 4-3, in the first round of the 2000 NCAA Championships and fell on the road in Champaign, Ill., 5-2, a year ago.
The 18th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will attempt to defeat Illinois for the first time since the 1967 season on Thursday as the Tigers host the top-ranked Illini at 4 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Admission is free to all LSU home tennis matches and refreshments will be provided by the Tiger Tennis Athletic Foundation.