BATON ROUGE — LSU seniors Bryan Fisher, Sebastian Rutka and Cory Ross will compete in their final match at the W. T. Dub Robinson Tennis Stadium when the men’s tennis team battles the South Carolina Gamecocks Sunday at 1 p.m.
“The three seniors are going to play with a lot of fight to get the win on Senior Day,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “But the other guys need to play with a lot of pride because they’ve brought the program back in the last couple of years.”
LSU (15-5, 6-4 SEC) looks to continue its dominance in doubles competition, having won the doubles point in nine consecutive matches.
The Tigers’ No. 1 pair of Fisher and Jason Hazley are ranked 23rd and have won their last four matches, and the 41st-ranked duo of Ross and Rutka are a perfect 10-0 on the season. Ken Skupski and Peter Richman will play at No. 3 doubles with an 8-3 record.
In singles competition, Skupski will try to bounce back from a difficult loss to seventh-ranked Hamid Mirzadeh of Florida. A victory would give the 28th-ranked freshman 25 singles wins on the season. Ross is looking to extend his six-match win streak in the final home singles match of his career.
Despite being in sixth place in the SEC Eastern Division, the Gamecocks could pose a difficult challenge for LSU.
“I think with South Carolina the thing you have to look at is that they have a win over Ole Miss, who is ranked three or four in the nation,” said Brown. “They’ve been able to put it together a couple of different times. You have to get four points against them just like anybody else, and it’s going to take everybody playing a little bit better.”
Although the Tigers lost a tough match to No. 9 Florida on Friday, Brown is confident that his team has the strength and maturity to rebound.
“We’ve responded pretty well to adversity during this year,” said Brown. “Today (against Florida) is another one step back, but hopefully we can take two steps forward.”
The three Tiger seniors will be honored in a ceremony prior to the match.