The men’s and women’s tennis teams played with opposite results on their first and second matches, which was encouraging for men’s coach Jeff Brown and disheartening for women’s coach Tony Minnis.
No. 18 Kentucky handily defeated No. 14 LSU 6-1, Friday in The Tigers’ first road Southeastern Conference game.
Kentucky began by defeating LSU (10-2, 2-2 SEC) in the doubles point. Ken Skupski and Peter Richman suffered their season’s first doubles loss to Evan Austin and Alex Hume, 8-6.
Cory Ross and Sebastian Rutka earned an 8-4 win over Kentucky’s Nate Emge and Tigran Martirosyan on court No. 3, but it was too late for the Tigers.
“We had a disappointing doubles point but we played well at three,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. “Then we left a few on the court in singles. We had chances on all six courts at some point, but we didn’t capitalize on them.”
Skuspki lost to Kentucky’s No. 15 Jesse Witten at No. 1 singles, 6-2, 6-0.
Even after falling behind 2-0, the Tigers had a chance to close in. Four of them tied or led in the second set, but Kentucky pulled away.
The Tigers lone singles win came from Cory Ross, who beat Jason Mallaiah, 6-7, 6-1, 6-2.
LSU’s road trip did not get any easier Sunday when it traveled to Nashville to face No. 13 Vanderbilt.
“We are going to separate these matches,” Brown said. “We need to come out with fire in the doubles point, which we will, and take advantage of our opportunities in singles.”
The No. 14 Tigers did exactly as their coach predicted, bouncing back from Friday’s loss to defeat No. 13 Vanderbilt 5-2.
“The guys knew they had something to prove after what everyone felt was a bad performance in our last match,” Brown said after the Tigers’ first SEC road win of the season.
Reigning SEC Player of the Week No. 58 Ken Skupski defeated No. 16 Chad Harris, 6-4, 6-4. The win gave Skupski his third win in three weeks over a Top 50 opponent at No. 1 singles.
Skupski, along with Peter Richman, also sealed the doubles point for the Tigers with a 9-8 (5) win over Vanderbilt’s No. 23 duo of Greg Sossaman and Zach Dailey.
“We were able to get the doubles point after falling behind 5-2 in the tiebreaker,” Brown said.
Sebastian Rutka clinched the match at No. 5 singles. Rutka came back after losing the first set to beat Lew Smith, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
“I think our guys showed how determined they are to not let this season spiral,” Brown said.
The Tigers will return home for a tougher test Friday against No. 2 Ole Miss.
The No. 35 Lady Tigers’ (9-6, 1-5) used their 11-game home winning streak to its advantage, upsetting No. 15 Kentucky 4-3 for its first SEC win.
The Lady Tigers won by winning the doubles point and splitting even with the Wildcats in singles.
The most important victory for the Tigers came when Lauren Seaman overcame an early deficit to clinch the match for the Lady Tigers. Seaman lost her first set to Liis Sober and trailed in the second before controlling her third set to earn the 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 win.
“I wasn’t playing well in the first set,” Seaman said. “When I was looking down at the other courts I could see that the match would be close and could possibly come down to me. I wanted to try to get her to a third set to see if I could outlast her physically. I was determined.”
“I’m really excited,” Minnis said. “We were not playing our best tennis, but it came down to determination and guts. These girls battled hard. They have done all this, and we are playing without one of our best players.”
Minnis lost his excitement after what he called a disappointing 6-1 loss to No. 4 Vanderbilt Sunday.
“You’ve got to be able to bounce back from matches if you want to advance to the Sweet 16 and other rounds, that’s no excuse,” Minnis said when talking about losing after defeating No. 15 Kentucky Friday.
LSU began by surrendering the doubles point to Vanderbilt, which put the Tigers in an early hole.
Daysi Espinal won her match at court six early, but the Lady Tigers also lost early at courts two and five, requiring that the Tigers take the other three courts to pull out a win.
It appeared that the other courts could be won, but Camilia Caliari, Marina Chiarelli and Jessica Ferguson all lost their matches.
“We came out flat and not ready to play,” Minnis said. “If we want to be a team that’s consistently in the Top 10 or Top 20, then we have to come out and compete every time.”
The rest of the Lady Tigers’ schedule should get easier. After playing seven consecutive games against Top 50 opponents, three ranking in the Top 5, LSU has no ranked opponents remaining on its regular season schedule.