The No. 25 LSU men’s tennis team will have its hands full this weekend as it takes on two ranked opponents at the ITA Kick-Off Weekend tournament.

The Tigers will open play against No. 11 Mississippi State on Saturday before facing the winner of the No. 21 Auburn vs. No. 23 Indiana match on the second day of the tournament.

The tournament comes on the heels of a dominant performance by LSU against Southern Miss last weekend. The match against Southern Miss highlighted one of LSU’s greatest attributes on the season: its superior fitness.

Sophomore Chris Simpson and freshman Tam Trinh both fell behind early in their matches, only to battle back and dominate in the following sets.

“Fitness is definitely something we’ve worked on a lot recently,” Simpson said. “We’ve changed our diet and put a lot of extra work in; I could tell we were in much better shape than [Southern Miss].”

The Tigers are taking on a Mississippi State team that beat them soundly last season. The Bulldogs dominated the Tigers 6-1 in singles play, with four of the Tigers’ five defeats coming against ranked opponents.

LSU coach Jeff Brown cited familiarity with an SEC opponent as something that would help the Tigers through the first match-up of the tournament.

The Bulldogs only return four players from last year’s squad, though. Four of their top six singles players are freshmen, including the No. 25-ranked singles player, Romain Bogaerts.

According to Simpson, the Tigers aren’t taking the challenge lightly.

“We’ve got payback on our minds,” Simpson said. “They defeated us pretty easily this year, but we have improved and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

While the men’s team seeks vengeance in Starkville, the women’s team will take on Northwestern State and Southern University on Sunday at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.

This will be the first dual-match of the season for Lady Tigers, and the first of coach Julia Sell’s career at LSU.

“I’m pretty excited about the matches this weekend,” Sell said. “It’s the first dual-match, and it’s a double-header so it should be a good test.”

Unlike the men’s team, the women will be facing an unfamiliar opponent in Northwestern State, a team they haven’t faced in more than seven years.

In the second match of the double-header, LSU will take on Southern, who the Tigers have beaten every year since the 2000-01 season.

“We are looking forward to the matches this weekend,” said senior Ebie Wilson. “We haven’t played Northwestern State since I’ve been here, but Southern always brings a couple of good players and is a good early season challenge.”

Men’s tennis:
No. 25 LSU is playing No. 11 Mississippi St. at 1:00 P.M. at the Pitts Tennis Centre in Starksville, Mississppi on Saturday.
Women’s tennis
LSU takes on Northwestern State at 1:00 P.M. and Southern at 6:00 P.M in the ‘Dub Robinson stadium on Saturday.