The LSU men’s and women’s tennis teams found their Achilles’ heel on Sunday.
The Tigers (3-4) and Lady Tigers (1-4) both dropped the doubles point early in their respective matches and couldn’t catch up. The Tigers fell to Wake Forest 4-3 at Wake Forest’s Indoor Tennis Center, while the Lady Tigers lost to No. 26 SMU 5-2 at SMU’s Turpin Tennis Center.
The Demon Deacons (3-3) jumped out to an early 1-0 over the Tigers, as the Wake Forest team of Jonathan Wolff and Danny Kreyman defeated LSU junior Tom Knights and senior Julien Gauthier 8-3. Demon Deacon players David Hopkins and Zach Leslie followed with an 8-5 win over the Tiger sophomores Roger Anderson and Olivier Borsos to clinch the doubles point.
The No. 14 duo of senior Sebastian Carlsson and junior Neal Skupski notched the only doubles win of the day for both LSU teams. The pair claimed their sixth consecutive doubles match with a 9-8 (3) win over Wake Forest’s Iain Atkinson and Tripper Carleton.
Things didn’t get much better for the Tigers in singles play as Wake Forest won two straight sets. Junior Tom Knights made it a 3-1 match with a 7-5, 6-4 win over Wake Forest’s Connor Sherwood, but the Demon Deacons clinched the match in the next set.
Carleton got the better of No. 88 Skupski, beating him 7-5, 6-4 to seal the deal.
“We didn’t capitalize on some opportunities we had in doubles, and Wake Forest did a good job of getting two singles matches off the
court early,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said in a news release. “We hung around but it was just too much for us to overcome.”
The Lady Tigers didn’t have much early luck against SMU (8-2) either. The Mustangs won all three doubles matches to go up 1-0. LSU sophomore Ebie Wilson and freshman Ariel Morton collected the Lady Tigers’ only points in singles play.
Wilson claimed her fourth straight win against SMU’s Shahzoda Hatamova, defeating her 6-3, 3-1. Morton defeated Ashley Turpin 6-3, 3-1.
“We were up once again in doubles, but we just are not closing teams out when we have the opportunity,” LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis said in a news release. “We have to keep plugging away to win the doubles point. SMU is a very good team and they played very well today. We just have to move on and get ready for Oklahoma State.”
The Tigers will play Texas A&M on Feb. 27 in College Station. The Lady Tigers will return home to play Oklahoma State on Feb. 26 at 3 p.m.
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Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]