LSU men’s tennis (9-4) played a doubleheader on Sunday, losing their third straight match 1-4 against No. 20 South Carolina before ending that losing streak with a win over Nicholls State.
Though a win at the end of the day is nice, the loss against South Carolina stings, as the Tigers now sit at 1-3 in SEC play.
Doubles was the same story as the last couple of matches. They were so close to taking it, with a victory on Court Three and two courts that were neck-and-neck. However, they weren’t able to finish the job again, losing yet another doubles point.
One of their strong points is supposed to be doubles, but they’ve struggled mightily lately, losing four of the last five doubles points. It’s only one point, but it’s extremely important and that’s been especially clear lately.
Coach Chris Brandi mentioned this as one of the holes that needs to be filled, but also acknowledged that a lot of those doubles losses were close.
“We lost today in a tiebreaker, Kentucky in a tiebreaker and Tulane in a tiebreaker, and in all those matches, we were up a break on the court that lost,” Brandi said. “We do need to improve, but we’re right there.”
Even without the doubles point, it seemed like there was a chance in singles. Though there were only two players for LSU that advanced to the second set with an advantage, Joao Graca fought back in his second set, and suddenly LSU had three courts with a lead.
This is where, once again, the Tigers suffer from not having that doubles point. Because South Carolina ended up taking them down in doubles, LSU needed to win four courts in singles to clinch the match.
When Rafael Wagner earned LSU’s first point since the Vanderbilt match, the score was 3-1. But if they have that doubles point, the score is even at two with LSU leading on two courts.
Needing one more point to win, the Gamecocks earned that point on Court Three. LSU’s Tom Pisane suffered a hard-fought tiebreaker loss in the first set before stumbling in the second, ultimately losing the match 6-7 (11-13), 2-6.
“It’s unfortunate that the first set didn’t go my way,” Pisane said. “But I’m improving every match and I’m really close to beating those guys.”
At that point Joao Graca was in the lead in his third set, and Boris Kozlov was in position to clinch. But that didn’t matter because the match was a clinch match, so the last two courts didn’t get to play out. The final score was 4-1.
“We just weren’t good enough to overcome some of the holes we dug ourselves, but we’re getting closer,” Brandi said about the loss. “Even though we lost to South Carolina, I think it’s a match that we took some confidence from and hopefully we build some momentum moving into the rest of the year.”
The team had a better match against Nicholls State, ultimately pulling off a 7-0 sweep against them, but that isn’t saying much. They’ve faced the Colonels seven times since 2013 and haven’t given up a single point to them in that span.
But despite the lack of competition, it does end LSU’s three-game losing streak and gives the team a small amount of confidence heading into this week and onward. They will need that added confidence as they travel to the state of Mississippi to face off against both Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
