Mississippi State
LSU
State Tennis Drops Extended Match At No. 32 LSU, 4-2
April 13, 2009 | Men's Tennis
BATON ROUGE, La. ? The 69th-ranked Mississippi State men's tennis team missed out on the weekend sweep on the road, dropping a 4-2 decision at No. 32 LSU, in a match that was extended today after play was suspended Sunday due to continuous rain. The match began with singles play because of the threatening weather conditions.
With the loss, MSU fell to 6-13 and 2-8 in Southeastern Conference action and LSU improved to 8-10 and 3-7 in conference play. MSU has also dropped seven of the previous eight matches to the Tigers and has not won at LSU since 1994.
On Sunday, LSU jumped out to the early lead with State's 88th-ranked senior Ryan Farlow falling to nationally sixth-ranked Michael Venus of LSU, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 1. MState evened the score at the No. 5 spot, when junior Chris Doerr for the Bulldogs won his second match-in-a-row, taking down the Tigers' Julien Gauthier, 7-5, 6-3.
LSU responded at the No. 3 position , with MSU's true freshman Louis Cant dropping consecutive sets in a three-set bout to Sebastian Carlsson of LSU, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3. The Bulldogs would rebound as 89th-ranked freshman Artem Ilyushin of MSU won a three-set match at the No. 2 slot over Tiger James Cluskey, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
Following the completion of those four matches play was postponed to Monday where the matched picked up with Bulldogs' sophomore Tanner Stump tied in the third set at the No. 6 position with LSU's Jonathan Tragardh. Tragardh eventually prevailed 6-4, 2-6, 7-5, giving LSU a 3-2 lead.
State's Sophomore Antonio Lastre entered today's play with a one-set lead over Neal Skupski of LSU at the No. 4 position, but slipped up in consecutive sets to Skupski, 6-7(8), 6-2, 6-4, to give the Tigers the match-clinching point.
“We were so close to clinching a weekend sweep,” said Mississippi State head coach Per Nilsson. “We were in it until the very end, but unfortunately were not able to pull out at least one of those last two matches and push the match into doubles.”
MSU will conclude regular season action this weekend at home for a senior day event against their in-state rival Ole Miss on Saturday, April 18, at 12 p.m. CT.
#32 LSU 4, #69 MISSISSIPPI STATE 2
Baton Rouge, La. ? 4/13/09
SINGLES - #6 Michael Venus (LSU) def. #88 Ryan Farlow (MSU) 6-1, 6-2; #89 Artem Ilyushin (MSU) def. James Cluskey (LSU) 6-3, 2-6, 6-3; Sebastian Carlsson (LSU) def. Louis Cant (MSU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; Neal Skupski (LSU) def. Antonio Lastre (MSU) 5-7, 6-2, 6-4; Chris Doerr (MSU) def. Julien Gauthier (LSU) 7-5, 6-3; Jonathan Tragardh (LSU) def. Tanner Stump (MSU) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5.
DOUBLES ? Not contested.
Order of Finish: Singles ? 1, 5, 3, 2, 6, 4.
Players Mentioned
