After not competing against anyone since Jan. 31, the No. 15 ranked LSU men’s tennis team won all three matches against in-state rivals Sunday and Monday.
The weekend started with a 6-1 victory over Southeastern on Sunday.
“It was good to get back on the court against a strong Southeastern team,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown.
In singles competition, Peter Richman defeated Haris Huremovic, Ken Skupski defeated Eric Subriates, Bryan Fisher suffered the only LSU defeat of the match, falling to Olivier Nussbaum. Jason Hazley defeated Milos Vasovich. Cory Ross defeated Matt Tate, and Danny Bryan defeated Paul Birkett.
In doubles, Skupski and Sebastian Rutka defeated Huremovic and Vasovich, Hazley and Fisher defeated Subriats and Tate, and Ross and Bryan defeated Birkett and Nussbaum.
Later Sunday, the Tigers defeated Centenary 6-0. Brown said Centenary was not at its usual strength.
“Against Centenary we were able to take care of business,” Brown said. “They were a bit off of their usual strength, but that allowed us to work on dominating an opponent.”
Fisher, Rutka, Ross, Bryan, Colt Gaston and Paul White defeated Brian Roberts, Josh Pinto, Ross Patrick, Arthur Okura, Andrew Barkley, and Chris Champion of Centenary, respectively. No doubles matches were played.
The team defeated UL-Lafayette 5-2 on Monday. Brown said that ULL put up some good competition.
“ULL showed today that they have good players at all six positions,” Brown said. “They’re fiery; they had a lot of energy. They come to play every day. Justin (McGrath) having been at Arkansas knows how to compete at a high level. We’re excited to get a good win under our belts.”
With the win the Tigers extend their winning streak against in-state opponents to 80.
Saturday will be the first road match for the team as it takes on No. 20 Texas in Austin.
“It’ll be a good challenge for us on the road, first time taking this team on the road so we’ll look to come out and compete at the highest level possible,” Brown said. “If you get a win over a Top 20 team it goes a long way in being seeded in the NCAA Tournament and being at home for the first two rounds.”