The LSU men’s tennis team kicked off the 2011 spring season with a disappointing 0-2 start at the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Lubbock, Texas.
Host Texas Tech cruised to a 4-0 victory Saturday against LSU before the Tigers lost to Auburn, 4-1, on Sunday.
Texas Tech, ranked No. 15 in the country, used a pair of doubles victories to set the tone for an easy day at the office.
The Tiger duo of junior Neal Skupski and senior Sebastian Carlsson entered the weekend at No. 27 in the NCAA in doubles but were quickly disposed of by unranked Red Raiders Raony Carvalho and Rafael Garcia, 8-1.
Texas Tech’s David Gonzalez and Raphael Pfister downed LSU juniors Tom Knights and Mark Bowtell, 8-3, to clinch the doubles point for Texas Tech.
Sophomores Olivier Borsos and Roger Anderson notched the only Tiger victory of the day — doubles or singles — by knocking off Vitor Manzini and Gonzalo Escobar, 8-3.
Borsos, Bowtell and Knights all fell in straight sets in singles action to clinch a victory for the Red Raiders.
“Texas Tech did a good job of capturing momentum early,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown in a news release. “In singles we had a few spots where we started to get it together, but we had too many matches where we fell too far behind.”
The loss to Texas Tech matched LSU with Southeastern Conference rival Auburn on Sunday in the loser’s bracket. Auburn lost to California on Saturday, 4-2.
LSU seized momentum early, winning the doubles point behind a bounceback performance by Skupski and Carlsson and a win from Knights and sophomore Stefan Szacinski.
Skupski and Carlsson held off Auburn’s Tim Puetz and Alex Stamchev, 8-6, while Knights and Szacinski outlasted Andreas Mies and Rafael Rodino, 9-7.
For the second-straight day, LSU failed to win a match in singles play.
The Tigers managed to win the first set of five of the seven singles matches but couldn’t close any of them.
Carlsson roared to a 6-0 first-set victory against Rodino, but Rodino rebounded to win the final two sets, 6-2, 6-1, to claim the first singles point for Auburn.
Julien Gauthier also won the first set of his match with Auburn’s Mies before losing 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Borsos jumped out to a one-set lead, 6-3, against Stamchev but dropped the final two sets, 6-4, 6-3.
Auburn’s Daniel Cocherane defeated Szacinski in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
The losses drop LSU to 0-2 for the second-straight season.
A year ago LSU started the season 0-4 before taking down Louisiana-Lafayette at home.
The Tigers begin the 2011 home schedule with a doubleheader Thursday against the Ragin’ Cajuns and UNO at 3 p.m. at Dub Robinson Stadium.
 
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Contact Hunt Palmer at
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