The LSU men’s and women’s tennis teams are moving on in their respective Southeastern Conference tournaments.The No. 8 Lady Tigers defeated No. 9 Alabama, 4-2, and the No. 9 Tigers knocked off No. 8 Alabama by the same score Thursday.The Lady Tigers lost the doubles point to the Crimson Tide but battled back in singles, winning four matches in straight sets.LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis said the first-round victory showed the team’s ability to bounce back from adversity.”In doubles they came out better than us, but in singles with our backs against the wall at the end of the season, we jumped on them and won four first sets,” Minnis said.Senior Hannah Robinson tallied LSU’s first point as she defeated Alice Tunaru, 6-1, 6-3, for the second time this season.Freshman Keri Frankenberger clinched the match for LSU with a 7-5, 6-2 victory against Alabama’s Antonia Foeshe.Frankenberger has clinched a team-high four matches this season and won 10 of her past 12 matches.”This team has been fun. We’ve had … a lot of things not go our way, but I’m pretty impressed with them,” Minnis said. “We’re not as good as we’ve been in the past, but we’ve displayed a lot of character and a lot of fight.”The Lady Tigers will face No. 1-seeded Florida today at 9 a.m. Florida is 35-1 all-time against LSU, including 4-0 in SEC tournament competition.Unlike the Lady Tigers, the Tigers started fast by winning the doubles point against Alabama.The LSU tandem of sophomore Neal Skupski and junior Sebastian Carlsson, No. 55 in Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, clinched the point by winning their match in a tiebreak, 9-8 (4), against No. 22 Saketh Myneni and Houssam Yassine.The match came down to two singles victories — No. 121 Carlsson on court three and sophomore Mark Bowtell on court two.Both matches went to three sets, with Bowtell defeating Alabama’s Ricky Doverspike, 7-6 (7), 1-6, 6-3, and Carlsson sealing the team’s second-round berth with a come-from-behind victory against Jarryd Botha, 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7).LSU will next face No. 1-seeded Tennessee today at 5 p.m., a matchup LSU men’s assistant coach Danny Bryan said will be far from easy. The Volunteers beat LSU, 7-0, on March 21.”We could use a couple more years to get ready for them,” Bryan joked. “They won the SEC this season, and they beat us pretty good on the road. We really need to get this one to have a chance [to make the NCAA tournament]. If we win tomorrow, we should be a lock.”—-
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