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MT faces LSU in SEC Tournament

April 20, 2016
LIVE Scoring/Video

Tennis

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – With the postseason officially in full swing, the No. 34 Vanderbilt men’s tennis team takes on the No. 33 LSU Tigers on April 21st at 9:00 am CT in the second round of SEC tournament play.

“This is a good opportunity for us,” said head coach Ian Duvenhage. “Even though we’re the higher seed, they’re ranked higher nationally. We just finished practicing and that will be our only practice for the day, so we’re not just keying towards tomorrow morning. We’ve got LSU at 10:00 am (ET), and obviously we’re going to have to play a really good match. They beat us convincingly at our place and we’re going to have to play a lot better than we did last time.”

Taking place this year in Columbia, S.C., the `Dores were named the seventh seed of the tournament Sunday night after going 3-0 in the last weekend of regular season play. Vanderbilt comes off two 4-2 upset victories over the then-No. 23 MSU Bulldogs and No. 34 Auburn Tigers, as well a 4-0 sweep over Lipscomb.

For their undefeated weekend, the Commodores improved 11 spots in the rankings, and were named the Oracle/ITA Big Mover of the Week. In singles, Daniel Valent improved to No. 34 with Cameron Klinger following at No. 103.

In tandems, Klinger and senior Rhys Johnson improved one spot, coming in at No. 14 in the nation.

In their last meeting the with the Tigers, Vanderbilt fell in a 5-2 heartbreaker at home and look for redemption in Thursday’s matchup. Since facing the Commodores, LSU has picked up three additional SEC victories in wins over South Carolina (4-3), Tennessee (4-3) and Kentucky (4-2).

“I feel like we’re playing the best tennis of the year no in the season. So hopefully we can continue that. Everyday is a new day and what we did last week doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what we do tomorrow morning. We just have to go out there and we ready to earn it like we’ve done the past week or so.”

Louisiana also brings two ranked singles players to the court, with Jordan Daigle in at No. 52 and Justin Butsch ranked 70th. Daigle and Boris Arias improved one spot in tandems, boasting a 14-4 record and the No. 8 spot in the country.

Results from regular season:

Singles competition

  1. #67 Daniel Valent (VANDY) def. #69 Jordan Daigle (LSU) 6-1, 6-1
  2. Justin Butsch (LSU) def. Rhys Johnson (VANDY) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1
  3. Gabor Csonka (LSU) def. Cameron Klinger (VANDY) 6-3, 6-3
  4. Baker Newman (VANDY) def. Simon Freund (LSU) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
  5. Boris Arias (LSU) def. Kris Yee (VANDY) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6
  6. Andrew Korinek (LSU) def. Alex Ross (VANDY) 6-1, 6-7, 6-2

Doubles competition

  1. #33 Cameron Klinger/Rhys Johnson (VANDY) def. #10 Boris Arias/Jordan Daigle (LSU) 6-2
  2. Tam Trinh/Justin Butsch (LSU) def. Tate Allwardt/Baker Newman (VANDY) 6-2
  3. Gabor Csonka/Andrew Korinek (LSU) def. Daniel Valent/Pen Binet (VANDY) 6-4

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,3,2,4,6,5)