The No. 32 LSU men’s tennis team closed its nonconference play on a tough note, falling to Tulane, 4-2, on Wednesday in New Orleans.
LSU coach Jeff Brown knew what to expect of the team with the No. 1 player in singles, calling the matchup a challenge, but something to look forward to.
The Tigers No. 17 ranked duo of junior Jordan Daigle and senior Boris Arias set the tone in doubles play early with a 6-3 win against Tulane’s No. 27 junior Chi-Shan Jao and senior Dominik Koepfer.
To claim the doubles point, LSU’s junior Justin Butsch and senior Tam Trinh defeated the Green Wave’s senior duo of Ian Van Cott and Alex Van Cott, 7-5.
“It started very intense with a very good doubles point and it ended intense with the three setters going on the last three courts,” said Brown in a news release. “They were just a little better than we were.”
The Tigers’ momentum didn’t carry into singles play.
After Butsch suffered an early loss to Tulane’s sophomore Constantin Schmitz in two sets, 0-6 and 2-6, sophomore Gabor Csonka gave LSU the lead back with his 6-2, 6-0 win against Alex Van Cott.
Meanwhile, a top-50 matchup between LSU’s No. 42 Daigle and Tulane’s No. 1 Koepfer went back and forth.
As Daigle forced a third set, Koepfer lived up to his ranking, defeating the junior 6-2, 4-6 and 6-0.
“Jordan did well although Koepfer got away from him in the third set,” Brown said. “He gave himself a chance to get to that third set against a guy that’s been dominating everyone. Jordan played at a really high level and, going forward, this is a match he will get a lot out of.”
Having lost three of four finished courts, the Tigers relied senior Andrew Korinek on court 6 and Arias on court 3 to keep LSU’s four-game win streak alive.
Though Arias forced a third set against Tulane’s junior Sebastian Rey, the La Paz, Bolivia native could not come through as he fell 6-2, leaving Korinek’s match unfinished and the victory to Tulane.
You can reach Markus Hufner on Twitter @Hufner_TDR