LSU junior men’s tennis player Julien Gauthier capped off a strong weekend showing and captured the Flight A singles championship at the Rice Invitational in Houston.Gauthier knocked off Southern Methodist’s Artem Baradach in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6 (4), to give the Tigers a singles title in their first tournament of the fall.The Repentigny, Canada, native, who spent most of last year at the No. 4 singles spot, beat SMU’s Bryan Griffin in straight sets, 7-5, 6-0, on Friday and then squeaked by Rice’s Isamu Tachibana, 4-6, 6-1, 1-0 (10-6) Saturday to advance to the championship.Freshman newcomer Stefan Szacinski lost in the Flight B finals, spoiling a chance to secure his first title in his first collegiate tournament appearance.Szacinski advanced to the finals with a 6-4, 1-6, 1-0 (13-11) victory against Rice’s Oscar Podlewski on Saturday, but ran out of gas in the finals.The Tigers’ other competitor in Flight A singles, sophomore Mark Bowtell, lost his opening round match Friday against Tulane’s Shayne Wali, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 1-0 (10-6).The duo of Bowtell and Szacinski were denied a shot at the Flight A doubles title after suffering an 8-4 loss to Tachibana and Podlewski. WOLF IMPRESSES AT SEC CLASSICLSU sophomore Whitney Wolf, who finished with a mediocre 15-19 singles record last year, opened up the season with a strong performance at the Southeastern Conference Fall Classic in Nashville, Tenn.Wolf won two of her three singles matches and teamed up with freshman Keri Frankenberger to sweep their doubles matches Friday and Saturday.The Pride native closed out her impressive weekend with a straight set victory against Ole Miss junior Laura Van de Stroet, 7-6 (6), 6-4.”Whitney Wolf showed that she made some improvements over the summer; however, we still have a lot of work to do and a long year ahead of us,” said LSU assistant coach Lisa Jackson in a news release.Wolf’s only hiccup of the weekend came Friday when she dropped a straight-set, 7-6 (3), 6-4, decision to Alabama’s Alexa Guarachi.Frankenberger and fellow freshman Kaitlin Burns enjoyed equally successful weekends in their first career collegiate matches, with each winning two singles matches.Frankenberger ended the weekend on a high note with a thrilling three set, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2 victory against South Carolina’s Rita Maisak. Jackson said she was impressed the way the three freshmen dealt with certain situations.”I felt like the freshman really stepped up under pressure at the SEC tournament,” she said.The third freshman of the group, Ebie Wilson, was the lone Lady Tiger who didn’t have the weekend she hoped.After falling to host Vanderbilt’s Heather Steinbauer in a close three-set match Friday, Wilson lost her next two singles matches in straight sets.The Lady Tigers have a weekend off before traveling to both Bloomington, Ind.,  for the Hoosier Classic, and Houston for the Rice Invitational on Sept. 25.”We’re excited to get back to practice and get ready for our next tournament,” Jackson said.—-
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