The LSU men’s and women’s tennis teams match up against in-state opponents Saturday in their last matches before Southeastern Conference play gets under way next weekend.The No. 14 Tigers host Louisiana-Lafayette (3-2) and New Orleans (7-4) in a doubleheader at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium, and the No. 26 Lady Tigers travel to the Cajun Courts to face Louisiana-Lafayette (0-7).Both LSU teams struggled in singles play during the Mardi Gras break against ranked opponents. The Tigers (2-2) lost all their singles matches against Ohio State, and the Lady Tigers (6-2) got their lone singles victory when senior Megan Falcon won her 20th match of the season against Florida State.LSU men’s tennis coach Jeff Brown said although Louisiana-Lafayette and New Orleans aren’t conference opponents, LSU isn’t taking either team lightly.”You can’t ever really look past any team, especially since ULL this year has a very good lineup, and UNO has some great wins as well,” Brown said. “We’re looking at them as matches in themselves. Everything we’ve done up to this point is certainly pointing toward the SEC, without looking past anyone.”LSU freshman Mark Bowtell came close to rebounding from one set down in his match against No. 82 Shuhei Uzawa of Ohio State, as he forced the match into a super tiebreaker, which he lost, 10-4.Bowtell said the key to coming back in the second set was taking control of the court after losing the first set, 6-0.”The first set I didn’t find my own game,” Bowtell said. “I was playing to his game and letting him dictate all the points. I was running side to side, which I really don’t like to do. In the second set, I was able to use my game to make the points shorter and hit a lot of winners.”Senior James Cluskey said he has especially worked on his serve and reducing unforced errors going into this weekend’s home matches. “I take everyone really seriously,” Cluskey said. “ULL is always dangerous. UNO’s results have been up and down, but they have some good wins. I’m definitely not thinking about the SEC yet.”Cluskey and sophomore Julien Gauthier moved into the national doubles rankings at No. 53 this week.Doubles play was a strength in the Lady Tigers’ matches last weekend. Junior Nicole Kantor and senior Staten Spencer clinched the doubles point against Florida State with an 8-6 win against Lauren Macfarlane and Jessica Sucupira.Kantor attributed the team’s strong doubles play to working on specific techniques on the court. “We’re doing a lot of different formations, and that’s helped us feel more confident,” Kantor said. “Staten had trouble on her serve at times, and we’re doing lot of different formations that have helped her feel more confident on her serve, and that’s really helped us.”Kantor said the Lady Tigers aren’t looking at Louisiana-Lafayette as a mere tune-up for SEC play.”Even though we’re the favorite against ULL, we have to look at them as a really big challenge because they are a good team,” she said. “[Wednesday] SMU, who is ranked No. 69, just beat Arkansas, and they were ranked No. 17, so that was a huge shock. We can’t just overlook ULL. We have to go in there thinking like it is an SEC match.”——Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]