In a battle of in-state foes, emotions ran high between the LSU men’s tennis team and Tulane at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
But with all said and done, LSU coach Jeff Brown could only be happy with his team’s performance in front of a mesh of purple, green and gold.
Aided by sophomore Jordan Daigle’s singles defeat of the No. 5 player in the nation, the Tigers (9-1) outlasted Tulane (9-2), 4-3, for their sixth-straight victory.
It was the fourth-straight time Brown defeated his former assistant Mark Booras since he became Tulane’s head coach, but Brown acknowledge the difficulty in beating this year’s Green Wave team.
“[Booras’] team has been getting so good, and that was just a great performance by a good team,” Brown said. “They really pushed us as hard as we are going to get pushed without losing. That really was an SEC level of play out there.”
After securing the doubles point in 7-5 and 6-3 victories, Tulane evened the score at a point apiece when LSU junior Boris Arias dropped his first singles match of the season in straight sets, 0-6, 3-6, to sophomore Chi-Shan Jao.
But on Court 1, Daigle rebounded for the Tigers with a victory against junior Dominik Koepfer. After battling to a 6-6 tie in the first set, Daigle blanked Koepfer in the set tiebreaker to take the match lead.
Then, Daigle dominated the second set to complete a 7-6, 6-1 victory that regained the lead for LSU. It was the second-straight singles loss for Koepfer, but Daigle said it took a few games to settle into the match against his difficult opponent.
“I think I came out a little bit nervous in the first set, and gave him a few easy games,” Daigle said. “Then, after I won the first set, I got a little bit of confidence and started getting things going. I think [Koepfer] was a little bit discouraged after losing such a tight first set and allowed me to run away with the second [set].”
But the Green Wave wasn’t done yet. Tulane sophomore Sebastian Rey overcame a 3-6 first set loss to junior Andrew Korinek, winning the next two, 6-0, 6-3, to even the overall score for the second time.
The Tigers finally broke through on sophomore Justin Butsch second-set tiebreaker in his 7-5, 7-6 straight sets win against junior Ian Van Cott. Senior Chris Simpson’s 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory against freshman Constantin Schmitz clinched the match for LSU.
Brown said Simpson’s win against Schmitz, who was was undefeated on the year entering the match, was a typical gutty performance from the senior.
“Chris Simpson doing what he does — coming up clutch,” Brown said.
Although the final singles match had no bearing on the outcome of the overall match, Tulane achieved its third point when junior Alex Van Cott defeated LSU junior Tam Trinh, 6-7, 6-3, 6-3.
LSU now turns to its first Southeastern Conference opponent, No. 20 Tennessee, on Friday in Baton Rouge.