The LSU men’s tennis team traveled to the state of Alabama this weekend for a pair of matches against two Western division rivals, No. 27 Auburn and Alabama.
The Tigers started their road trip with a dominating 5-0 victory against the Crimson Tide.
No. 25 LSU (8-4, 2-2) continued its solid play in doubles by grabbing the doubles point.
The No. 39 duo of senior Neal Skupski and sophomore James Turbervill gave LSU the early advantage in the match with an 8-3 win over Alabama’s Vikram Reddy and Carlos Taborga on court two.
Alabama evened the scores on the top court when the Tide’s Jarryd Botha and Ricky Doverspike upset the No. 38-ranked duo of LSU junior Olivier Borsos and freshman Chris Simpson, 8-5.
The Tigers clinched the doubles point on court three when juniors Roger Anderson and Stefan Szacinski defeated the Tide’s David Vieyra and Michael Thompson, 9-8.
Szacinski started the Tigers off in singles play with a quick 6-3, 6-2 win against Reddy on court four, followed by Skupski taking down Botha on court two in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6.
Turbervill and senior Tom Knights clinched the match for LSU, completing the Tigers’ 5-0 sweep of the Crimson Tide.
No. 61 Borsos and doubles partner Simpson left their singles matches unfinished.
LSU traveled to Auburn on Sunday but couldn’t pick up its third consecutive Southeastern Conference victory, falling 5-2.
Auburn took the doubles point quickly before rain caused a delay in singles action.
Up 1-0, Auburn came out of the rain delay on fire as it took three consecutive matches from LSU to put the score at 4-0.
The Tigers saw singles victories from Knights, who won both of his matches over the weekend, and Simpson.
“[Against Auburn], we didn’t have as good of a day in doubles,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “In singles, we did pretty well, but not as well as it takes all the way through.”
The LSU women’s tennis team hosted No. 17 Alabama and No. 75 Auburn over the weekend.
The Lady Tigers struggled in the weekend’s opening match against Alabama, suffering their second consecutive shutout in SEC play in a 4-0 loss.
After a two-and-a-half-hour weather delay, the match began with singles play, leaving doubles action to only be played if necessary.
The Crimson Tide would make the match a short one, sweeping the Lady Tigers in singles play.
LSU (7-4, 2-2) would have to turn things around quickly as it faced Auburn on Sunday. The Lady Tigers did just that with a 4-3 victory.
Senior Whitney Wolf and junior Keri Frankenberger took their match on court one, while senior Olivia Howlett and sophomore Yvette Vlaar clinched the doubles point, giving LSU a 1-0 lead.
Howlett closed out her weekend on a high note, defeating Auburn’s Jen Pfeifler on the top court, 6-2, 6-4.
Auburn tied the match at 2-2 with Emily Flickinger’s 6-4, 6-2 victory over Wolf on court two and Plamena Kurteva’s win against LSU’s Kaitlin Burns on court four.
But Vlaar gave LSU the lead again after taking down Taylor Schreimann, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, on court six.
With LSU up 3-2, Frankenberger put Auburn away with a 6-7, 7-6, 6-1 win against Jackie Kasler on court five.
 
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