The LSU men’s tennis team lost a hard fought match to Auburn at home Friday afternoon, 4-2, in LSU’s Southeastern Conference opener.Auburn got out in front early taking two out of three doubles matches to secure the doubles point. The No. 13 ranked duo of LSU senior Michael Venus and freshman Neal Skupski were defeated by Auburn’s Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz, 8-6. “Auburn did a good job on the road,” said LSU men’s tennis coach Jeff Brown. “To get the doubles point really helps your spirits.” In singles play, Skupski and senior James Cluskey both lost, giving Auburn a 3-0 advantage. LSU freshman Mark Bowtell beat Auburn’s Alex Petropoulos, 6-3, 6-2, to get LSU’s first singles point. Venus brought the match score to 3-2 after notching a win in straight sets against Alexey Tsyrenov, 6-4, 6-4. LSU’s Sebastian Carlson lost a back and forth match to Alex Stamchev, sealing the win for Auburn, 4-2. Cluskey said he has got to get out of his recent slump. “In singles, I’ve been struggling big time,” Cluskey said. “I thought I played okay in the first set. The guy’s a good player, but I’ve just been struggling with confidence and not really hitting the ball that good. Everyone fought hard, and that’s all you can really ask for. We’ll try to move on and look to Sunday.” Coach Brown said the Tigers need more consistency when they take on Alabama on Sunday. “The points that we won were encouraging with Julien [Gauthier], Mark and Mike,” Brown said. “If we can get everyone doing it at the same time, we have a chance on Sunday.”
 
 
 
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