The LSU men’s and women’s tennis teams open Southeastern Conference play this weekend as they both face Auburn on Friday and Alabama on Sunday.The men’s team will host Auburn at 2 p.m. at “Dub” Robinson Stadium and Alabama at 1 p.m. Sunday.The Tigers are eager to start off strong this season after losing last season’s SEC openers to Alabama and Auburn.”It’s a long SEC season,” said LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown. “We don’t know how it’s going to unfold, but we’d like to start off on the right foot. We’re excited … and we’d like to get a lot of [fans] out if possible.”Auburn has beat LSU the past three seasons by identical 4-3 scores.”Auburn has been a tough out for us,” Brown said. “We’ve ended up in the rankings 10 or 15 spots above them each year at the end of the year, but we’ve lost to them three times in a row. It’s one of those teams that have just been a tough matchup for us.”LSU senior Michael Venus, ranked No. 9 nationally, said it is important to win both matches this weekend because LSU had to play catch-up after dropping the first two conference matches last season.”[Auburn has] beaten us the last three years on matches we probably should have won,” Venus said. “We’re a better team than that. So we need to take care of them on Friday. Once we do that, we’ll start looking at Alabama and what we need to do to take care of them.”LSU senior James Cluskey echoed Venus’ statements, saying he wanted to redeem last year’s losses.”I’ve been around long enough now to know most of the guys on their team and who we’re playing,” Venus said. “I am excited to maybe get some revenge this year.”LSU has had better fortune against Alabama, winning two out of their last three meetings. Brown said the Tigers are ready for the big weekend.”We’re healthy, and we played enough matches now to where we’ve had a chance to work on some things from each match,” Brown said. WOMEN’S TENNISThe women’s team opens SEC play at Auburn at 4 p.m. Friday.”It’s usually a battle,” said LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis. “We beat [Auburn], 4-3, last year and the year before. I think the teams are very similar, so I’m expecting a real exciting, competitive match.”The Lady Tigers will get back on the road to face Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Ala., at 1 p.m. Sunday.”[Alabama has] got a young team and a good program,” Minnis said. “They’re having a very good year this year. [In the SEC], you’ve got to come ready to play every time you step out there.”—-Contact Tyler Harvey at [email protected]