The LSU men’s tennis team dropped to 0-3 in the Southeastern Conference after suffering a 2-5 defeat to Auburn Friday night at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
While the final score may not look like it, LSU was a handful of points away from picking up its first conference win.
“I thought the guys came out with the right energy and the right attitude,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “It was just a little frustrating because the execution just wasn’t there in a couple spots.”
LSU drew some strength from an energetic crowd throughout the doubles matches, as it battled with an Auburn side led by the No. 1 duo of Daniel Cochrane and Andreas Mies: however, it was the other pairs that stepped up for Auburn.
Joseph Van Dooren and Lukas Ollert bested freshman Boris Arias and senior Olivier Borsos 8-6, while Lucas Lopasso and Dennis Lengsfeld defeated senior Roger Anderson and freshman Tam Trinh by the same score, securing the doubles point for Auburn.
Moving into singles play, LSU saw some expected shuffling of the line up as Borsos and Trinh swapped spots at second and third positions. Borsos looked in top form in the first set, winning 6-1. Szacinski and senior Mark Bowtell also won their first sets, both by the score of 7-5.
The rest of the other LSU squad was not as fortunate. Simpson, Trinh and freshman Harrison Kennedy all played competitive matches, but were defeated in straight sets before LSU could score any points, clinching the match for Auburn.
Szacinski put LSU on the board with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Lopasso, who showed some resilience as he fought back from being down 5-2 in the first set and 4-1 in the second.
Borsos pulled a Jekyll and Hyde performance in the second half of his match, becoming visibly upset with himself and the umpire on his way to dropping the second set 2-6. His antics continued in the final set as Cochrane took the match with a 6-4 win.
Bowtell dropped his second set 2-6 but was able to bring home the match by winning a super tiebreak 10-5 and finishing the scoring for the match.
“You just have to fight hard and fight through the tough times, and those guys just can’t let their heads get down,” Brown said. “In [the SEC], if you start getting down a bit, you’re going to get down a lot more. You have to fight through and get ready for the next match.”
LSU will next hit the road to face Alabama on Sunday at 1 p.m.
