The No. 8 seed LSU men’s tennis team will travel to the 2009 Southeastern Conference tournament eager to achieve its second win of the season against No. 9 seed South Carolina.The Tigers knocked off the Gamecocks, 5-1, on April 5, but LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown said that match was tighter than the score indicated. He said the Tigers can’t take South Carolina lightly.”South Carolina was one of the teams we really got things going against when we played them on the road,” Brown said. “We won a couple of close tiebreakers in singles, and that helped the momentum of the match. We’re very aware of their level. They’ve been able to beat Kentucky this year, who is a very tough team. The strength of the SEC is apparent.”Brown said freshman Neal Skupski will play at the No. 3 position for LSU, and sophomore Sebastian Carlsson will move to No. 4.Skupski played at the No. 4 the past seven matches, and he is 8-1 in that spot overall. He is 2-2 at No. 3 this season, and Skupski said he is not afraid to make the change in his first SEC tournament.”When we played South Carolina last time, I was playing at the No. 4 position, and I won pretty easy,” Skupski said. “I was pretty pleased [to move up]. There’s more pressure on me to win.”  Skupski and senior Michael Venus advanced to No. 3 nationally in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings released Tuesday. The duo  played at the No. 1 position all season and posted an 11-7 record.Venus also moved up one spot to No. 6 in national singles rankings.If the Tigers defeat the Gamecocks on Thursday, they will take on top-seeded Ole Miss in the second round Friday in Auburn, Ala.LADY TIGERS SEEDED NO. 10The No. 10 seed LSU women’s tennis team plays its first-round match of its SEC tournament today against No. 7 seed Ole Miss.The Rebels beat the Lady Tigers, 5-2, on April 10 and started LSU’s three-match losing streak.LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis said Ole Miss took him by surprise in the teams’ first meeting in Oxford, Miss.”I wasn’t as familiar with some of their players,” Minnis said. “They picked up some young players that are really solid. We’ve definitely shown patches of being great, and we’ve shown patches of not being great. It’s exciting to have another opportunity against them.”Minnis said junior Hannah Robinson and senior Staten Spencer will switch positions in singles. Robinson, who is 9-18 in singles play this season, will play at No. 6, and Spencer will move up to the No. 5 position.”Staten has been playing really well, and she’s playing a bit better than me right now,” Robinson said. “It was a good coaching decision.”Spencer and fellow senior Megan Falcon had LSU’s two wins against Ole Miss two weeks ago.Falcon, who received her third straight first-team All-SEC selection Tuesday, said the Lady Tigers need to “come out stronger in doubles” to avenge their earlier loss to the Rebels.”I’m actually really excited. Everybody is looking forward to getting revenge,” Falcon said.Falcon said the Lady Tigers  want to perform well enough in the SEC tournament to improve their seeding in the NCAA tournament, which begins May 8.”This is a really good opportunity for us to come away with at least two wins and get the chance to host for the NCAAs,” she said. “That would be pretty awesome.”
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