The LSU men’s tennis team lost its third straight match Sunday, falling, 4-3, to No. 4 Georgia.
The No. 26-ranked Tigers’ longest losing streak of the year comes at an inconvenient time of the season as LSU heads into the home stretch of its Southeastern Conference schedule.
“It’s just a matter of numbers. If we get one more point we win, and we’ve had a few of those go our way this year,” said LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown. “We’ve had a few tough ones this week.”
The Tigers lost March 19 to No. 2 Ohio State, 6-1, and fell on Friday at No. 24 Tennessee, 4-3.
The Tigers had a chance to win the doubles point, but the Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead, winning the point.
The Bulldogs’ No. 31 duo Ignacio Taboada and Hernus Pieters handily won, 8-3, against the Tigers’ No. 51-ranked junior Olivier Borsos and freshman Chris Simpson.
The Tigers were up a break on both courts one and two, but the Bulldogs broke back, taking both matches to sweep doubles.
The Bulldogs carried momentum into singles, winning two quick matches to push the lead to 3-0.
But the Tigers clawed their way back, with No. 85 senior Neal Skupski and No. 71 Borsos notching straight set victories to tighten the score at 3-2.
Borsos’s upset victory over Georgia’s No. 8 Wil Spencer ended a three-match losing streak and gained Spencer his second victory against a top-15 opponent this season.
On court six, senior David Roberts, in a rare singles start, battled against No. 70 Pieters, pushing the match to a decisive third set.
But with a late break, Pieters sealed the match, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, clinching the win for the Bulldogs.
“You can’t say enough about Dave Roberts coming in against a guy who’s been ranked in the top 50 in singles, getting him to a third set and pushing him to the limit,” Brown said.
Brown said despite the loss, the team can take confidence away from today’s matchup.
“We beat the No. 4 team in the nation at [courts] one, two and three,” Brown said. “That’s got to bode well for us as we go forward. I don’t see us losing that many matches if we get that same effort from the top.”
Ending the current losing streak could prove difficult for the Tigers, with road matches against No. 12 Mississippi State and No. 14 Mississippi looming at the end of this week.
“Losing a match like this, you have to be sad, but you have to see the positive side of it,” Borsos said. “We are going to beat Ole Miss and Mississippi State because we have to get them back for when they beat us here [last year] and were celebrating.”
The LSU women’s tennis team also struggled Sunday, losing, 6-1, at No. 7 Georgia.
The No. 49 Lady Tigers upset No. 12 Tennessee at home on Friday but were unable to duplicate that result against the Bulldogs.
“We played well today. Georgia is just a really good team,” LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis said. “We had a good week overall, though, so now we just need to get ready for next weekend.”
Against Tennesseee on Friday, the Lady Tigers’ Whitney Wolf upset Tennessee’s No. 37 Caitlyn Williams to give LSU the victory, but Wolf failed to upset another ranked opponents on Sunday, falling, 6-2, 7-5, to Georgia’s No. 8 Chelsey Gullickson.
Olivia Howlett picked up the Lady Tigers’ only point, winning, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-7), for her fourth straight singles victory and second straight ranked upset.
The Lady Tigers will be back in action Friday with a home matchup against Mississippi State.
 
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Contact Spencer Hutchinson at [email protected].