Despite coming off a three-week layoff since its last match against Rice on Jan. 31, the LSU men’s tennis team swept a doubleheader against No. 39 Drake and Nichols State on Friday night by a score of 4-0 and 5-0, respectively.
The Tigers started with a 4-0 win against Drake, snapping the Bulldogs’ three-game winning streak, on Friday afternoon.
“Drake is a good team,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “They’ve had some nice wins. But we hadn’t competed in this complex yet, so we really wanted to start things off right. There was a little bit of pressure in that regard.”
LSU junior Justin Butsch and senior Tam Trinh helped clinch the doubles point with a 6-4 victory against Drake’s duo of senior Ben Lott and sophomore Calum MacGeoch.
The Tigers built off their doubles momentum and didn’t allow the Bulldogs back into the match.
LSU junior Jordan Daigle, No. 44 in singles rankings, captured the marquee singles match, defeating Drake’s No. 76 Lott 6-2, 7-5.
Senior Andrew Korinek followed up Daigle’s win with a victory against freshman Tom Hands, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1.
The Tigers clinched the match when Butsch defeated Drake sophomore Bayo Philips 6-4, 7-5.
“We came out early and with a lot more energy than Drake to take an early lead,” Butsch said. “Singles was tough on all courts, but I managed to pull it out.”
LSU didn’t have much time to celebrate the win before facing Nicholls (1-2) in the second part of Friday’s doubleheader.
But the Tigers showed no signs of fatigue from their earlier match when they stole the doubles point from the Colonels.
LSU sophomore Simon Freund and freshman Nikola Samardzic clinched the point for the Tigers by defeating Nicholls Junior Sam Meessen and Junior Benard Wezeman.
The Nicholls team forfeited a point to the Tigers after the doubles round when LSU senior Tam Trinh defeated Wezeman.
Samardzic tallied the third point for LSU with a two-set win against Nicholls freshman Oscar Reeve 6-1, 6-2.
Sophomore Gabor Csonka secured the Tigers’ victory by defeating Nichols Meessen, 6-1, 6-2.
“We get a little shot in the arm by winning against a ranked opponent,” Brown said. “Hopefully, that will give us a little confidence going into our practices.”
The men’s tennis team will return to action against the University of North Florida on Feb. 26.