BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU Men’s Tennis is headed to Tucson, Arizona, for ITA Kickoff Weekend, competing in the ITA National Indoor Championship Qualifiers from Jan. 23 – 26.
The Tigers will open their play against No. 16 Arizona on Saturday, Jan. 24, at 3:00 p.m. CT. Depending on their result, they will take on either No. 20 Florida State or No. 22 Pepperdine on Sunday, Jan. 25, at a time yet to be announced. All matches this weekend will be played at the LaNelle Robson Tennis Center.
In the 18th annual ITA Kickoff Weekend, LSU was drawn into Arizona’s bracket as the No. 4 seed. This event features 56 of the top programs in the nation across 14 host sites. The team in each pod that wins both of their matches will advance to the ITA National Indoor Championship in Dallas and Waco, Texas, where SMU and Baylor will host, taking place from Feb. 13-17.
Arizona enters with a 3-1 record, its only loss coming to then-No. 21 Oklahoma in its season opener. Since then, they’ve hit a three-match win streak – two coming over New Mexico State University, and their last against No. 20 Florida State.
No. 20 Florida State comes into the weekend at 5-1, suffering its only loss this past week against Arizona. They will face off first against No. 22 Pepperdine, which narrowly defeated Florida Atlantic University in its only match so far this season.
LSU heads to Arizona after an impressive first weekend of action, where they opened their season with an intense 4-3 victory over Clemson, then ranked No. 25. They continued their success heading into Sunday’s doubleheader home opener, where they swept both South Alabama and Jackson State, 7-0. This marks the second time that the team has started 3-0 under head coach Danny Bryan.
Freshman Erik Arutiunian highlighted LSU’s fall signings. So far, he has delivered strong performances in his first three matches of his collegiate career. Arutiunian has posted a 3-0 record on both the No. 1 singles court and No. 2 doubles court with partner Matias Ponce de Leon, including the clinching doubles point against Clemson in a 7-6 (9) thriller.
Sharing the perfect doubles record at the No. 2 spot, Ponce de Leon delivered convincing victories in the home opener. Improving his singles record to 2-1 on court four, the first-year tiger looks to maintain his commanding start to the season.
The third and final signing before the season, Olaf Pieczkowski, will make his LSU debut this weekend. The Polish native has a career-high ATP ranking of 455 with two ITF professional titles to his name. He also has a top 20 UTR (Universal Tennis Rating) in college tennis, with a rating of 13.89.
The remaining four starters, Rudy Ceccon, Enzo Kohlmann, Andrej Loncarevic, and Sasa Markovic, all built off last season’s success in the opening weekend.
Ceccon and Kohlmann took on the third spot in doubles, picking up their first win of the season together against South Alabama. Furthermore, Ceccon’s heroics against Clemson clinched the match for LSU, the first of his three singles wins on the season, all taking place on court six. Kohlmann matched up at the No. 2 court and, after a marathon match against Clemson, ended his weekend with a pair of wins.
The top court’s pair of doubles partners, Markovic and Loncarevic, are carrying on their success from last season’s campaign. The two begin 2026 with a perfect 2-0 record. As for singles, Loncarevic tallied two wins on court three, while Markovic launched his spring campaign with a flawless 3-0 record in the fifth spot.
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