The No. 16 ranked LSU men’s tennis team defeated No. 27 Rice today at “Dub” Robinson Stadium in the first home match of the season 4-3.The Tigers were swept Rice in doubles competition. The duo of Michael Venus and Neal Skupski defeated Tobias Schiel and Christoph Muller of Rice, 8-5. Venus and Skupski improved their doubles record to 3-0. Venus was formerly teamed up with James Cluskey.The LSU doubles team of Cluskey and freshman Mark Bowtell took down Rice’s Bruno Rosa and Chong Wang, 8-6, in a hard-fought match.LSU’s Sebastian Carlsson and Jonathan Tragardh sealed the sweep by defeating Isamu Tachibana and Sam Garforth-Bles, 8-6.”We played well as a team,” head coach Jeff Brown said. “In doubles we got victories all the way around. It ultimately took Neal, Julian and Sebastian, two sophomores and a freshman, to come through for us.”In singles play, Rosa proved why he is ranked No. 26 in the nation with a convincing victory versus Cluskey (6-1, 6-1).Carlsson took the first singles victory for the Tigers, dominating No. 61 Garforth-Bles, 6-0, in the first set before taking the 7-6 victory in the second set.LSU’s No. 2-ranked Michael Venus lost a back-and-forth match against Rice’s Christoph Muller. Venus got off on the right foot taking a 3-0 advantage in the first set until Muller made an impressive comeback to win the set, 7-6. Venus was able to rebound in the second set to win, 6-4.But the third set ended up being the turning point as Venus lost composure and slammed his racket into the court after Muller began to take the advantage. Muller won the final set, 6-1.”He was just frustrated going in,” Brown said. “He knew it was going to be a tough match.”But Venus’ loss was irrelevant, as LSU had already sealed the victory against Rice shortly after Venus’ third set had began.”There’s just a rule that you have to play once the third set starts,” Brown said. “Sometimes depending on the situation, people are able to stop. He wanted to stop, but he would have to default anyway. He was just frustrated. We reiterated the rule to him, and he understands. He’s glad the team won ultimately.”LSU’s next matchup will be against No. 1 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio.”It was hard-fought, and we need everyone to play that well to win,” Brown said. “That’s a good team. They’ll be top 20 by the end of this summer.”