The Tigers had the chance to take out two top-25 teams from Texas this weekend, following up their solid performance against No. 22 SMU with a fast start against Texas. But just as quickly as it seemed like LSU could pull off the improbable, the momentum switched almost entirely.
In doubles, the Tigers faced a tremendously tough task with a lot of poise. Despite facing off against two top-10 duos (No. 4 and No. 8), they managed to pull leads on every court through the halfway point of the matches.
Kent Hunter and Gabriel Diaz Freire got out to a 4-0 lead before struggling to close it out down the stretch. But they managed to sneak a few wins into Texas’s rally, taking the match 6-4 over No. 4 Richard Ciamarra and Cleeve Harper.
However, they could not manage to close out another match.
Texas would even it up on Court 5, but neither remaining LSU duo made it easy for the Longhorns. Vlad Lobak and Ronnie Hohmann held strong against No. 8 Elliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab for a while but failed to even it at 5, ultimately falling by a score of 6-4.
Failing to obtain the doubles point would prove to be detrimental for the Tigers, as they entered singles against three players ranked in the top-100. Texas would quickly take three courts, as LSU’s Ronnie Hohmann, Gabriel Diaz Freire and Joao Graca would all fall in two sets.
But not a single one of those sets was decided by more than two games, and LSU’s Vlad Lobak and Kent Hunter had leads on Courts 2 and 3 despite facing No. 34 and 92 respectively. Couple that with an even match on Court 5 and the Tigers had a realistic avenue to three singles points, meaning if the doubles point had swung LSU’s way, they had a solid chance of pulling off the upset.
In their last three matches against top-25 teams (Florida, SMU and Texas), the Tigers displayed their true potential, holding their own against some of the best singles and doubles talent in the country. They had their best postseason performance in the Brandi era of LSU tennis, finishing an up-and-down season off respectably.
