The No. 20 LSU men’s tennis team lost in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in a rematch with No. 17 South Carolina on Thursday.

The Gamecocks started out hot in the doubles competition — one of South Carolina’s biggest strengths — and took the matches on courts one and two. South Carolina has the No. 14 doubles pairing in the nation in Tsvetan Mihov and Chip Cox, and they asserted their dominance with an 8-4 win on court one.

“It kind of typifies the matches in the SEC,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “It was tough with South Carolina winning the doubles point, but we came back and had a chance to win. We didn’t, but they are a great team and best of luck to them in the tournament”

Mihov continued his success on court one, as he dominated LSU sophomore Chris Simpson in straight sets to extend South Carolina’s lead to 2-0. 

The Tigers began battling back, though, as freshman Boris Arias took his match on court five in straight sets.

LSU then tied the score back up at 2-2, when senior Mark Bowtell secured a straight set win on court four. Fellow senior Stefan Szacinski’s winning streak was finally snapped when he fell in three hard-fought sets on court two despite racing out to a 2-0 lead in the third set.

LSU then relied on freshman Tam Trinh and senior Olivier Borsos on courts six and three, respectively.

Trinh came through with a thrilling three-set win, in which he won the third set 6-4 after dropping the second set 3-6. 

Borsos didn’t have the same success falling in three sets after winning the first set. With the win on court three, South Carolina secured the win and the chance to play No. 3 seed Florida in the second round.

LSU will now turn its focus to the NCAA Tournament, where with the early loss yesterday they have put themselves out of contention for hosting a regional as a top-16 seed. 

“I think we had a great season,” Brown said. “We fought hard, but it was a tough match.”