Fresh off its 5-2 victory at Rice last weekend, the No. 32 LSU men’s tennis team will travel to Berkeley, Calif., this weekend for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Kickoff Weekend.
The Tigers will face stiff competition from No. 13 California, No. 25 Minnesota and No. 27 San Diego throughout the weekend.
“We’re excited about going out there,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “With winning comes some confidence that you can’t get from practice, so it was nice to have that win over Rice for several of the guys.”
Brown said he liked the energy his team brought into last weekend’s match and felt encouraged by the team’s approach to the match.
LSU will begin play on Sunday when it faces the host school, Cal. The Golden Bears boast the highest-ranked singles player in ITA Kickoff in No. 42 Ben McLachlan the two highest-ranked doubles teams with No. 5 Christoffer Konigsfeldt and Nick Andrews and No. 27 Carlos Cueto and Ben McLachlan.
Pending the result of Sunday’s matches, the Tigers will face either Minnesota or San Diego on Monday.
“We have some teams that are very evenly matched out there,” Brown said. “Regardless of the outcome, we’re going there to play two matches.”
LSU will rely on the play of No. 68 Olivier Borsos and the No. 28 team of Borsos and Chris Simpson while the Tigers go up against ranked competition throughout the weekend.
“We’d like to see where we are and continue to build for the season,” Brown said.
The Tigers remain without senior leader Mark Bowtell, who will not make the trip due to an undisclosed illness. The 6-foot-4 Irishman posted a 6-2 singles record in the fall.
“We’ll be better when we have [Bowtell] at full strength,” Brown said. “But we’re going with who we have, and they’ve done a good job so far.”
LSU returns to W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium next Thursday when they take on No. 70 Clemson for the 2012 home opener.
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Ian Fontenot at [email protected]