With college basketball’s rivalry week right around the corner, the No. 29 LSU men’s tennis team will renew a rivalry of its own this weekend.
The Tigers (0-2) travel to Houston today to take on Rice (3-1) at 1:30 p.m. at Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.
The Owls own the all-time series, 10-16-2, but the Tigers have won the last three matches, including a 4-3 nail-bitter last February at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium. 
“We’re very familiar with them,” said LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown. “It’s been a good, healthy rivalry.” 
LSU was last in Houston in September when junior Julien Gauthier won the singles title at the Rice Invitational. 
But Gauthier might not be able to contribute today, as he is still nursing a left ankle injury he suffered last week at practice.
Brown said Gauthier practiced all week but was only 60 percent as of Wednesday afternoon.
“It’s a matter of how confident he is on it,” Brown said. “We can’t afford to have our No. 3 player out of the lineup.” 
The match against Rice comes a week after LSU dropped two matches at the ITA Kickoff Weekend to then-No. 19 Louisville and then-No. 13 Florida State.
Two of the Tigers’ top singles players, junior Sebastian Carlsson and sophomore Neal Skupski, both struggled against top-ranked opponents during last weekend’s tournament. The duo spent most of the week watching game film to get a sense of what needs to be worked on the most.
“They were very disappointed they didn’t pull out a win,” said LSU assistant coach Danny Bryan. “But we need them to step up and hold their spots at the top.”
Brown said he wasn’t sure whether he would keep Carlsson at the No. 1 singles spot or move Skupski there.
Regardless, one of the two will have to take on one of the top players in the country — No. 19 Bruno Rosa. 
“He’s a terrific player,” Bryan said. “He’s plays with a lot more maturity than most guys.” 
LADY TIGERS HOST AGGIES
The No. 28 LSU women’s tennis team will also renew a rivalry Sunday, as they host Texas A&M on Sunday at 11 a.m. 
The Lady Aggies (0-2) owned the Lady Tigers (2-2) for the latter part of the 2000s, recording four straight victories from 2004-2007.
But LSU broke the streak last year by squeaking out a 4-3 victory at Texas A&M. 
“It’s always really competitive,” said LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis. “We consider them, without a question, our toughest non-conference rival.”
Like the men, the Lady Tigers are coming off a weekend in which they dropped two matches and only managed one point in those two decisions when freshman Kaitlin Burns had a straight-set singles victory against San Diego.
Minnis was quite frank when talking about improvements that need to be made for this weekend.
“We need to get better in doubles,” he said. “I wasn’t very pleased how we played.”
He partly blamed the inconsistency on a lack of team chemistry between some of the younger girls.
“In junior tennis, they don’t play doubles often,” he said. “So most of the time it’s the toughest adjustment [for freshmen].”
On paper, this is the toughest test the Lady Tigers faced so far. The Lady Aggies boast three singles players in the top 118 and the No. 23 doubles team in Morgan Frank and Lauren Santacroce.
 
—-Contact Sean Isabella at [email protected]