Men's Tennis Gears Up for LSU and Arkansas
4/1/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
April 1, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The No. 33 men's tennis team (8-10, 1-5 SEC) welcomes in a pair of Southeastern Conference Western Division foes this weekend to the University of Alabama Tennis Stadium. The Crimson Tide will do battle with No. 46 LSU (5-10, 2-4 SEC) at 3:00 p.m. (CST) on Friday, April 2 before facing off against No. 50 Arkansas (9-9, 1-5 SEC) at noon (CST) on Sunday, April 4.
Alabama split a pair of home matches last weekend, taking down Southern Mississippi 5-2 on Friday before falling to No. 9 Kentucky by the same score. The Tide shuffled its doubles lineup against the Golden Eagles and it didn't work in Alabama's favor as Southern Mississippi secured the early point. The Tide responded quickly in singles play, winning the first four matches to come back and win the match. Senior Houssam Yassine delivered the clinching victory, knocking off Julien Roussel 6-3, 7-5. On Sunday against the Wildcats, Alabama dropped a hard-fought doubles point. Kentucky quickly put the match away in singles, winning three matches in straight sets. No. 31 Senior Saketh Myneni collected a huge win at the No. 1 spot, fighting off No. 13 Eric Quigley 6-7(5), 6-3, 1-0(9).
LSU comes into the weekend on a three-match losing streak, but all three losses were against top-10 teams. All but two of the Tigers' matches have come against ranked foes, with LSU claiming three wins in those matches. The Tigers have also struggled on the road this season, winning just one match away from Baton Rouge. Sophomore Neal Skupski moved up to No. 34 in the latest national singles rankings, while also checking in at No. 67 in doubles with freshman Roger Anderson. LSU leads the all-time series with the Tide 32-19.
Arkansas enters the weekend after splitting a doubleheader in Tulsa on Tuesday. The Razorbacks dropped a 6-1 decision to No. 31 Tulsa before rebounding to defeat Oral Roberts 4-0. Arkansas has played 13 matches against ranked opponents this season, only able to come away victorious in three of them. Arkansas has also had a difficult time in conference play, losing its last four SEC contests. Junior Chris Nott is the only Razorback ranked nationally in singles, checking in at No. 60 this week. Nott and senior Dmitry Lebedev are No. 68 in doubles. Alabama owns a 12-9 record in the all-time series with Arkansas.
Next up, the Tide travels to the state of Mississippi for the final conference road trip of the season. Alabama heads to Starkville on Friday, April 9 to take on Mississippi State at 3:00 p.m. (CST) and Oxford on Sunday, April 11 to battle Mississippi at 1:00 p.m. (CST).
Players Mentioned
