Riding a three-match winning streak, the LSU men’s tennis team’s Southeastern Conference speed was no match for No. 4 Ohio State’s Big Ten power.
 
The Tigers (3-3) were defeated in straight sets in all but one singles match as the Buckeyes rolled to a 7-0 win, extending their home winning streak to 118 matches.
 
“Ohio State is No. 4,” said LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown. “We’re not there yet, and that’s how it is. I’m encouraged, and I do think we’re a top-25 team.”
 
The No. 27 doubles team of junior Neal Skupski and senior Sebastian Carlsson provided the lone bright spot, winning their fifth straight match by taking down No. 19 Matt Allare and Peter Kobelt, 9-8 (7-3).
 
“A couple of the matches they lost earlier in the season, they just had to figure each other out,” Brown said. “They know how to complement each other well.”
 
However, Ohio State quickly erased any thoughts of an upset. After LSU sophomores Roger Anderson and Olivier Borsos won the first two games of their doubles match, No. 25 Devin McCartney and Balazs Novak reeled off eight straight wins to prevail, 8-2.
 
LSU lost the doubles point moments later when senior Julien Gauthier and junior Tom Knights fell by an identical 8-2 margin.
 
In singles, the Tigers let several sets slip through their grasp. Ohio State countered with its best tennis when threatened most.
 
After 102nd-ranked Borsos, playing on court one for the first time in his career, took a 4-1 second-set lead, No. 7 Blaz Rola won the last five games to defeat Borsos, 6-2, 6-4.
 
Similarly, Gauthier lost a 4-2 first-set lead when Novak closed out the set by winning four games, ultimately falling 6-4, 6-4.
 
“We played well about half the amount of time we needed to,” Brown said. “[Ohio State] played at a very high level, and we were able to match that for some of the time, but we just need to do a better job of staying at that level.”
 
Knights was the only Tiger to win a singles set. The London native battled back from a 5-2 deficit in the first set before losing, 7-6. He bounced back to win the second set 6-4. Because of time constraints, a super tiebreaker was played in place of the third set. Knights fell behind early and couldn’t rally, dropping the tiebreaker, 10-4.
 
The win gave Ohio State its third win this season against a ranked SEC opponent and marked the 300th career victory for coach Ty Tucker.
 
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