NEW ORLEANS — The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will begin play in the 2003 NCAA Tournament on Saturday as the Tigers face the South Alabama Jaguars at 3 p.m. at the Goldring Tennis Stadium on the campus of Tulane University in New Orleans.
The 15th-ranked Tulane Green Wave, which is hosting the NCAA regional, will take on the Southern Jaguars at 1 p.m. in the opening match of Saturday’s doubleheader. Southern (11-5) qualified for its second-straight NCAA Tournament by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference title.
“I think that playing at Tulane will be a good thing for our team,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We will have so many of our fans there that it will almost feel like a home regional and that is good for a team when it comes to gaining momentum. It will definitely be a lot better than last season where we played at Texas A&M and we only had a handful of people that were able to travel for us. Having it at Tulane is a huge advantage for us.”
LSU heads into Saturday’s opening round matchup with a 13-10 overall record on the season after earning a second-place finish in the highly competitive Western Division of the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers ended the regular season with a 5-6 mark against conference opponents and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the SEC Tournament.
Nine of LSU’s 10 losses this season have come against opponents currently ranked among the nation’s top-20 teams. In hard-fought contests, the Tigers have fallen prey to No. 1 Illinois, No. 2 Florida, No. 6 Vanderbilt, No. 8 Ole Miss, No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 13 Kentucky, No. 16 Alabama, No. 18 South Carolina and the 20th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs.
South Alabama enters the contest as the 56th-ranked team in the nation as the Jaguars own an impressive 19-7 overall record. Earlier this season, South Alabama won its sixth-straight Sun Belt Conference title and its 15th conference championship of all time.
“South Alabama has a very talented team this year,” said Brown. “We have played against them in a few fall tournament and we know about a couple of their guys that have been in their lineup over the last few years. They have always been a tough, hard-fighting team and they are very well coached. We’re looking forward to playing them and we know that it will be a battle.”
LSU and South Alabama have faced each other seven times since the 1980 season. The Tigers have won all seven contests and have outscored South Alabama by a total of 49-9. Since 1989, LSU has not relinquished a point against the Jaguars and have posted four straight shutout victories. In the previous four matchups, LSU earned victories of 9-0, 6-0, 9-0, and 7-0, respectively.
The Tigers’ Brown and South Alabama’s head coach Scott Novak have only faced off against each other once in the all-time rivalry. In 2000, which was the latest of the seven meetings between the teams, LSU registered a 7-0 victory over the Jaguars at home at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“If we are able to win our first match, then we will play either Tulane or Southern on Sunday and we have a pretty good rivalry with both of those institutions,” Brown said. “We’ve already agreed with Tulane to get our rivalry started again with a match next season and if we play them this year, then we will just be able to get it kicked off a bit earlier.”
The 19th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team will face off against the South Alabama Jaguars on Saturday at 3 p.m. for a chance to meet the winner of the Tulane/Southern contest being held at the Goldring Tennis Stadium in New Orleans.