BATON ROUGE — The 16th-ranked LSU men’s tennis team can win its third straight Southeastern Conference match when they host a struggling Alabama squad on Sunday at W.T. Robinson Stadium at 1 p.m.
The Crimson Tide are last in the SEC Western Division. They fell Friday to Arkansas, bringing them to 7-13 and 0-9 in the SEC.
Their young roster is led by No. 86-ranked sophomore Joseph Jung and two time SEC Player of the week Luigi D’Agord.
Like LSU (15-7, 3-6 SEC), Alabama has come up just short in several contests.
“Alabama has struggled in a lot of close matches,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “We know what they are capable of and we’re not taking them lightly by any means.”
The Tigers, on the other hand, seem to have reversed a spell of bad luck that plagued them early in the conference schedule. They opened SEC play with four losses but have now won five of their last seven matches, including a 6-1 win Friday over Auburn.
Big doubles play has been a factor in nearly all of the wins. The Tigers have won that seven times in a row.
LSU can solidify its claim to third place in the SEC West with a win. They broke a tie with Auburn when they beat them Friday.
The match is one of three remaining regular season contests for LSU before the SEC tournament begins in two weeks.