In tennis, momentum is like a seesaw. A player can win the first set 6-0 as easily as they can lose the second set 6-0.
Consequently, when a team is able to seize momentum in a match, it can be hard to overcome as the LSU men’s tennis team learned on Sunday.
After winning a tight doubles point, No. 8 Georgia (14-6, 9-1 Southeastern Conference) defeated No. 54 LSU (11-12, 2-9 SEC) 4-0 to hand the Tigers their seventh road loss of the season.
When the match finished, three Tigers were leading or nearly tied in their respective singles matches, making the contest closer than the scoreboard indicated.
“I think Georgia was really relieved,” LSU coach Jeff Brown said. “They probably knew that there were some potentially difficult matchups. … They got to four, but it was extremely close.”
LSU junior Chris Simpson dropped the first singles point by losing to Georgia’s No. 18 Austin Smith 6-2, 6-3. Simpson, the highest-ranked Tiger at No. 77, has lost seven out of his last eight matches. His last singles win came against Alabama’s then-No. 17 Daniil Proskura on March 7.
LSU redshirt freshman John Michael Busch fell to the Bulldogs’ Hernus Pieters 6-2, 6-2, giving Georgia a 3-0 lead before Tiger sophomore Harrison Kennedy’s 6-3, 6-3 loss to the Bulldogs’ Nick Wood sealed the victory for Georgia.
Busch earned the start on Sunday replacing LSU sophomore Boris Arias, who was competing in the second weekend of the 2014 Davis Cup for his home country of Bolivia.
While it is beneficial for Busch to gain some live SEC action as a freshman, Arias’ absence was crucial, especially down the last stretch of the regular season Brown said.
“I’m glad for [Arias],” Brown said. “We miss him. It’s frustrating for us to not have our full team when other teams have guys that can probably play in Davis Cup themselves that didn’t make the same choice. It’s a good honor, it’s just frustrating for us.”
The match began in LSU’s favor as the doubles team of Kennedy and sophomore Andrew Korinek defeated Georgia’s Eric Diaz and Smith 8-6. But the Tigers would drop two doubles contests in a row, each by the score of 8-7.
LSU’s No. 70 ranked doubles duo, sophomore Tam Trinh and freshman Eric Perez, battled for the deciding doubles point, fighting off several match points against Georgia’s No. 9 ranked doubles team of Pieters and Ben Wagland. But the Georgia squad would eventually win 8-7 (7-5), clinching the doubles point and shifting the momentum to the Bulldogs.
“[Doubles] really fortified the fact that we were at the level that we thought we were,” Brown said. “We played hard and it just came down to a point or two that we didn’t get.”