The LSU men’s tennis team finished the first home match of the season in style Thursday, defeating Clemson, 5-2.
But it wasn’t an easy ride for the No. 28 Tigers (3-1), who often had their hands full with No. 72 Clemson (1-2).
“The difference wasn’t as much as it appears,” said LSU men’s tennis coach Jeff Brown. “There’s a lot of things that could have gone against us, but we did a good job of closing out on a couple courts.”
The Tigers got an early advantage by seizing the doubles point.
LSU’s junior pair, Roger Anderson and Stefan Szacinski, started the Tigers off with a quick 8-4 defeat of Clemson’s Ayrton Wibowo and Hunter Harrington.
Senior Neal Skupski and sophomore James Turbervill secured the doubles point for the Tigers with an 8-6 win against Clemson’s Gerardo Meza and Cedric Willems.
It was Skupski’s and Turbervill’s sixth-straight victory, and the duo remains undefeated this season.
“I thought me and James played really well today,” Skupski said. “We’re building a partnership.”
LSU’s No. 28 pair of junior Olivier Borsos and freshman Chris Simpson made it a clean sweep for the Tigers in doubles with a victory against Yannick Maden and Zachary Rigsby.
Borsos and Simpson were down, 5-1, after six games, but rattled off seven straight games for an 8-5 win.
Skupski and Turbervill continued their success in singles play, where they each rolled to straight set victories.
Clemson made the match interesting by winning the next two matchups, but LSU senior Tom Knights sealed Clemson’s fate with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Willems.
Brown said he attributes much of his players’ performance to the raucous home crowd.
“It was a really great crowd for a Thursday at 1 p.m.,” Brown said. “I want to commend [the fans] for
coming out and giving us that
energy.”
The Tigers now move to 3-1 heading into a road matchup with No. 31 Michigan on Saturday.
“That’s a tough place to play,” Brown said. “We have to go from here to playing indoors there, so it’s going to take everything we have to get through that.”
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Contact Spencer Hutchinson at [email protected]
Men’s Tennis: LSU Tigers finish strong in home-opener against Clemson
February 3, 2012