The LSU men’s and women’s tennis teams will compete in the ITA Southern Regional tournament in Alabama this week. The men will play in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, from Oct. 15-19, while the women will play in Auburn, Alabama, from Oct. 16-19.
For the Lady Tigers, in the opening round of prequalifying at the ITA All-American tournament, junior Abby Owens was defeated by Texas Christian University’s Marie Norris. Owens also played doubles, teaming up with senior Skylar Kuykendall. The duo was eliminated by Laura Gulbe and Dzina Milovanovic of Oklahoma State University in their opening match.
Kuykendall found success in singles, earning two wins in qualifying. However, she ultimately fell to Pepperdine University’s Luisa Stefani.
Junior Joana Vale Costa was defeated by Ellen Perez of the University of Georgia in the opening round of the main draw. She was sent to the consolation bracket and defeated Vanderbilt University’s Frances Altick in the opening round. Vale Costa was forced to retire due to “feeling very sick and light headed,” co-head coach Julia Sells said in a news release.
The Tigers earned victories in the ITA All-American,
including standout wins from sophomore Gabor Csonka, sophomore Simon Freund and junior Justin Butsch. Junior Jordan Daigle and senior Boris Arias also had success in doubles.
In the opening round of prequalifying, Csonka defeated Clemson University’s Luke Johnson, while Freund earned wins over Nick Wood of Georgia, the University of Oklahoma’s Florin Bragusi and TJ Pura of Duke University.
Freund was defeated by Julian Childers of the University of Illinois in the second round. Csonka earned the victory over the University of Florida’s Joshua Wardell but fell in the next match against Matt Mendez of Ohio State University.
Freund and Csonka teamed up in doubles, earning a win against the University of Virginia’s Luca Corinteli and J.C. Aragone in the first round of qualifying.
Butsch defeated Alex Gornet of the University of Louisville and Jerry Lopez of TCU in the first and second rounds of qualifying. He also teamed up with senior Tam Trinh to defeat Indiana University’s Sam Monette and Daniel Bednarczyk. During the final round of qualifying, Butsch was forced to retire from both singles and doubles play due to injury.
Daigle and Arias defeated Charlie Emhardt and Jeffery Schorsch of Valparaiso University in the opening round of the doubles main draw but ultimately fell in the next round to the University of New Mexico’s Bart Van Leijsen and Hayden Sabatka.
Trinh, who played singles in the ITA All-American for the first time this preseason, will look to use his experience to get his first win.
“I’m more comfortable now that I’ve got one tournament under my belt in the fall,” Trinh said. “I’m looking forward to improving and getting more wins.”
The Tigers will try to continue the momentum they’ve gained from the first three tournaments.
LSU tennis head coach Jeff Brown said the team has a lot of spots in the lineup he feels good about.
“We’re taking Justin, Tam, Gabor, Simon and Cameron [Andry] to the regional tournament,” Brown said. “To watch all those guys continue, like Simon and Gabor had two more breakthrough wins. Justin is playing very well and has been picking up some big wins. Cameron just needed experience. Tam needs to play some more matches, and he’s due for some big wins. We’re looking to grow and continue with some of them.”