LSU will toss up its first serves of the season Thursday as the Tigers travel to Nashville, Tenn., for the 2013 Southeastern Conference Fall Classic.
The tournament is hosted by Vanderbilt at the Currey Tennis Center, the site of the 2014 SEC Tournament. Thirteen SEC schools will present their men’s teams, an opportunity for the Tigers to showcase their talent as well as scout out the rest of the conference for the upcoming spring season.
“This is one of the top-five best fields of the year with every SEC team represented,” head coach Jeff Brown said in a news release. “Our team will understand the level we will have this year in conference play after this event.”
The first two rounds of the tournament begin on Thursday at 8 a.m. and the subsequent rounds, all the way up to the finals, shape out the weekend. All eight of LSU’s players will compete in the singles draw, among 88 participants.
The Tigers ended last season with a 16-13 record, including 10 wins against ranked opponents, but lost four seniors who were key contributors to the team. With a squad largely comprised of freshmen and sophomores, junior Chris Simpson returns as the most experienced Tiger in 2013-14.
Simpson is ranked No. 29 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association preseason singles poll after a 20-win singles season with the Tigers, the most on the team. The Derby, England, native is the No. 4 seed for singles in the Fall Classic and has a bye in the first round on Thursday.
Sophomore Boris Arias, University of Texas transfer Andrew Korinek and freshman Justin Butsch are also receiving byes in the first round of play. Butsch will have a tough go in his first match for LSU as he faces the tournament’s No. 1 singles seed in the second round: Tom Jomby of the University of Kentucky.
After sitting out all of last season, redshirt freshmen John Michael Busch and Eric Perez play their first competitive sets in purple and gold on Thursday.
Busch pairs with sophomore Harrison Kennedy in doubles as the duo receive a first-round bye. Perez teams up with Butsch in round two after a first-round bye as well.
Filling out the doubles pairings for the Tigers are the duos of Simpson and Arias and sophomore Tam Trinh and Korinek. Trinh boasted last season’s best record in doubles with 17 wins.
Simpson and Trinh were first and second on the team in singles victories in spring 2013, respectively. Beginning Thursday, the two hope to lead LSU’s young bunch to success in the 2013-14 season.