The No. 32 LSU men’s tennis team defeated Mississippi State on Sunday, 4-2, in a match that was sent into rain delay Sunday evening. “It was a good win over another team that is ranked like we are,” said LSU men’s tennis coach Jeff Brown. “We knew how hungry they were, took their best and were able to win.”The Tigers scored the first point Sunday after No. 6 LSU senior Michael Venus defeated No. 88 Ryan Farlow in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.But the Bulldogs took the next singles point when Christopher Doerr defeated LSU sophomore Julien Gauthier, 7-5, 6-3. Fellow LSU sophomore Sebastian Carlsson answered back defeating Mississippi State’s Louis Cant, 6-1, 6-3, after dropping the first set.No. 89 Artem Ilyushin defeated LSU senior James Cluskey in the last match before the rain delay, leaving the match score tied at 2.Play was postponed while LSU senior Jonathan Tragardh was in a 3-3, third set battle and freshman Neal Skupski was leading, 4-2, in the second set.”For the two guys that were still playing, it was a very sleepless night, going over scenarios in your head and hopeful that things will go your way,” Brown said. “We had to win at least one of them to get into the doubles. I thought they did a great job of being competitive, but the execution suffered a bit with the nervousness.”Tragardh and Skupski may have been nervous, but Tragardh took his match after winning the third set, 7-5, and setting the Tigers up with a 3-2 lead.And Skupksi didn’t waste time claiming the victory for the Tigers.”Jon [Tragardh] did a good job to win his match, which put a little pressure on me to clinch,” Skupski said. “But we did well and got the win. I felt a bit of pressure, but that crowd gut behind me, and I played pretty well.”Skupski won the two remaining sets and clinched a 4-2 victory for the Tigers.”Jon and Neal did a good job of dealing with the pressure and having to sleep on the match,” Brown said. “The team’s kept their head up, and we’re chipping away at the season. We’re going the right direction.”The Tigers face No. 42 Arkansas in their last home match of the season at W.T. Robinson stadium on Saturday.LADY TIGERSThe No. 16 LSU women’s tennis team dropped its match against Mississippi State, 4-3, on Sunday.The singles matches were played first because of the threat of rain in the Starkville, Miss. area.No. 17 LSU senior Megan Falcon took down Martina Banikova, 6-0, 6-0, advancing her season record to 30-6. Falcon is five wins short of claiming her 100th career victory and is tied for 11th for the all-time winningest players in LSU’s program history.Mississippi State’s Olesya Tsigvintseva defeated LSU’s Mykala Hedberg, 6-2, 6-4, while Junior Hannah Robinson defeated Daniela Juskova to give the Lady Tigers a 2-1 advantage. LSU’s Nicole Kantor beat Elna de Villiers in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, extending her season record to 24-12 and putting the Tigers up, 3-1.LSU’s Staten Spencer dropped her match against Valeriya Makarycheva, leaving the Tigers up, 3-2.LSU freshman Whitney Wolf lost a hard-fought battle to Radka Ferancova, tying the match at 3-3 before doubles competition continued indoors.In doubles action, the No. 17 ranked duo of Falcon and Hedberg battled Mississippi State’s Banikova and de Villiers but were defeated, 8-9.  Robinson and Wolf battled Natalia Mayuk and Tsigvintseva but also fell in a an 8-9 match on court two.”Mississippi State came out and played with a lot of hunger,” said coach Tony Minnis. “They have struggled this year, but they came out and played a great match.”The Lady Tigers travel to Fayetteville on Saturday to face No. 14 Arkansas for their final regular season match.
 
 
 
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