The LSU men’s tennis team ended a seven-match losing streak Tuesday afternoon dramatically with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against South Florida at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.After LSU blew a 2-0 lead, junior Julien Gauthier rallied from an early deficit in his match to clinch the overall match for the Tigers with a 6-7, 7-5, 7-5, victory against the Bulls’ Romain Derrider.”It was a nerve-racking situation because it was a match we really needed,” Gauthier said of the Tigers’ win in their final home match of the season. “It was probably one of the biggest matches of the year to keep ourselves with a chance of getting into the tournament.”Gauthier battled back from an early 5-3 deficit in the second set and rattled off four straight games to win the set 7-5.He blew a 5-2 lead in following set, before holding on for the Tigers’ first win since a March 19 win against then-No. 21 Wake Forest.”That level out of Julien, I haven’t seen in a while,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown.LSU started the match strongly.Junior Sebastian Carlsson and sophomore Neal Skupski, the No. 43 doubles tandem in the country, recorded an 8-4 victory against Thomas Estrada and Jamal Adderly, and Gauthier and sophomore Mark Bowtell secured the doubles point when Bowtell ripped a forehand winner for an 8-6 victory against USF’s Mark Oljaca and Juan Carlos Gerard.Bowtell’s hard first-serve and powerful forehand were no match for Adderly, as Bowtell cruised to a 6-1, 7-5, victory to give LSU the early 2-0 lead.USF countered with a pair of singles victories, including a 7-6 (7-6), 6-3 victory by Wael Kilani against Skupski to tie the match at 2-2.Skupski led 6-2 in the first-set tiebreaker but gave away four match points to drop the set.Skupski’s misfortune rubbed off on junior Cody Loup, who was up a set and a break with a 4-2 advantage against Yannick Yoshizawa in the second set.But Yoshizawa forced a second-set tiebreaker and took the third set 6-3, giving the Bulls a 3-2 lead.Carlsson came to the rescue by grinding out a three-set, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, win against Peter Frank to tie the match at 3-3.”I felt good with Sebastian out there,” Brown said. “He’s probably going to win most of the matches he’s in that go that long.”LSU has yet to lose a match to USF, improving to 9-0 in the all-time series.The win against USF puts LSU one step closer in its quest to qualify for the NCAA tournament.LSU has its final match of the season Friday at Arkansas before taking part in the Southeastern Conference tournament next week.”The guys need to use this as a pick me up from a bunch of losses and use the confidence to the best we can,” Brown said. “It doesn’t take much to realize we’re still in a tough situation and fortunate to still have an opportunity.”—————Contact Sean Isabella at [email protected]