The No. 16 LSU men’s tennis team defeated No. 27 Rice, 4-3, at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium in the Tigers’ first home match of the season.LSU swept Rice in doubles competition. The duo of Michael Venus and Neal Skupski defeated Tobias Schiel and Christoph Muller of Rice by a score of 8-5. Venus and Skupski improved their doubles record to 3-0.
The LSU doubles team featuring freshman Mark Bowtell and Cluskey took down Rice’s Bruno Rosa and Chong Wang in a hard fought match, 8-6.LSU’s Sebastian Carlsson and Jonathan Tragardh sealed the sweep by defeating Isamu Tachibana and Sam Garforth-Bles 8-6.”We played well as a team,” said LSU men’s tennis coach Jeff Brown. “In doubles we got victories all the way around. It ultimately took Neal, Julian and Sebastian, two sophomores and a freshman, to come through for us.”In singles play, Rosa proved why he is ranked No. 26 in the nation after a convincing victory 6-1, 6-1 victory versus Cluskey. Carlsson took the first singles victory for the Tigers, dominating No. 61 Garforth-Bles 6-0 in the first set before winning by a 7-6 score in the second set.LSU’s No.2 ranked Michael Venus lost a back and forth match against Rice’s Christoph Muller. Venus got off on the right foot, taking a 3-0 advantage in the first set until Muller made an impressive comeback to win the first set 7-6.
Venus was able to rebound in the second set, winning 6-4, but Muller won the final set, 6-1.Muller won the final set, 6-1. LSU’s next matchup will be against No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio
 
 
 
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