The LSU men’s tennis team was solid this past weekend, defeating the New Orleans Privateers. The same can not be said for the Lady Tigers, who opened their Southeastern Conference season in Gainesville, losing to defending national champion Florida 7-0.
The No. 10 Tigers (7-0) defeated New Orleans 6-1 Saturday in their final match before their SEC opener next week against No. 24 Georgia.
“It was a perfect match for us to play today,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown.
“It’s great that we have schools in the state that can give us a challenging match. I thought we competed well in doubles and in singles I
thought the guys did a good job.”
LSU (7-0) began by winning all three doubles matches.
LSU’s No. 13 Jason Hazley and Bryan Fisher clinched the doubles point by defeating UNO’s Gabriel Delarue and Luke Bernard, 8-5.
Peter Richman and Ken Skupski beat UNO’s Pierre Ros-Barbier and Erwan Rebuffe, 8-4.
The No. 21 duo of Cory Ross and Danny Bryan defeated UNO’s Julien De La Mettrie and Saif Ali, 8-5.
Singles competition did not threaten the Tigers either.
No. 87 Skupski defeated UNO’s Bernard, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-8).
Hazley beat UNO’s Houard, 6-2, 6-4.
Ross won by the biggest margin in his match against Rebuffe, 6-1, 6-2.
UNO’s Ali was the lone winner of any match for the Privateers, defeating Rutka, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).
The score may not show the competitiveness of the match that UNO brought to the Tigers, but LSU coach Jeff Brown said the match served his team well.
“Today’s match helped us get ready to focus on the SEC matches,” Brown said. “We’re excited to play Georgia.”
The Lady Tigers (7-2, 0-1 SEC) proved to be no match for the No. 2 Gators, and junior Amanda Mang’s untimely injury worsened conditions for the Tigers, who faced a team that started five out of six players in the singles top 100 and two out of three teams in doubles top 25.
Lauren Seaman, Daysi Espinal and Camila Caliari, who have been essential for LSU’s success by playing undefeated tennis this season, all
lost their first match against the Gators.
The Gators set the tone early, defeating the Tigers in all three doubles matches.
Florida’s No. 11 duo of Julie Rotondi and Alexis Gordon defeated Rocio Fantilli and Seamen, 8-5.
Jessica Ferguson and Marina Chiarelli lost to Florida’s No. 22 combo of Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes, 8-1.
Boglarka Berecz and Nina Suvak of Florida won their match against Caliari and Espinal, 8-5.
The Gators did not let up when competition moved to singles, winning all six matches.
Florida’s No. 5 Gordon defeated No. 77 Ferguson, 6-3, 6-2.
Fantilli lost to Florida’s No. 22 Magley, 6-2, 6-1.
Chiarelli put up the closest fight of all Tigers in her loss against Florida’s No. 45 Reyes, 6-4, 6-3.
The Lady Tigers could not think for too long about their loss to Florida, because they traveled to Columbia, S.C., to take on the No. 48 South Carolina Gamecocks on Sunday.
Results for Sunday’s matchup were not recorded in time for press release.