With the Southeastern Conference allowing competition after Oct. 1, the Tigers have jumped onto the opportunity to play again, hosting an invitational from Oct. 2-4. They will face off against Arkansas, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
The team was just getting into conference play last March when the season ended abruptly. They didn’t get a chance to face any of the teams they are hosting next weekend in the spring.
The Tigers will look to see what works best before the regular season starts. With many new faces on the squad, there is a lot to figure out before then. Co-head coach Chris Brandi mentioned a possible change in the doubles teams.
“We still need to figure out our doubles teams,” Brandi said. “We could have three completely new teams, and that’s something we need to be prepared for.”
Brandi cited the new guys as a key component to watch, as three of their four recruits are eligible to play this fall: Ben Koch, Joao Graca and Tom Pisane.
“We’ll especially be watching our new guys,” Brandi said. “We’re watching them play a little bit and they have things to work on. We have to start tinkering with the teams and see what makes the most sense.”
He also briefly mentioned two other players who couldn’t play last fall: Ronald Hohmann and Rafael Wagner. Hohmann wasn’t eligible to play until the spring (like recruit, Benjamin Ambrosio) and Wagner was out all last fall because of an injury.
Wagner is excited to be back with the Tigers, especially after returning for his senior season, only to have that season get cut in half.
“It was hard to motivate ourselves,” Wagner said when talking about competition and practices coming to a halt. “With tournaments coming back, it makes practice and everything better. It’s very exciting.”
With Rafael Wagner 100% healthy again, it’ll be interesting to see how he performs this season.
This will be the only instance this fall where the LSU Tennis Complex will be used for SEC competition. The team will travel for their other two tournaments, to Mississippi State for an invitational from Oct. 16-18 and to Alabama from Nov. 6-8. The rest of the players’ competition will come from unattached events here and there, and of course, practice.
Despite this, the Tigers are still excited just to be able to play. Competition is competition, and the team will take what they can get.
“We were initially worried about how things were going to go,” Coach Brandi said. “We’re so grateful that we get to play in the SEC. They’ve done a great job putting everything in place.”
