March 6, 2009
BATON ROUGE, La. - As SEC competition began, the No. 26 Auburn men's tennis team (6-2, 1-0 SEC) defeated conference-rival No. 30 LSU (4-3, 0-1 SEC) on the road, 4-3.
The Tigers started the afternoon match by picking up the doubles point and then continued to roll through singles play.
In doubles action, Auburn took the point as the No. 11 pair of Alexey Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz settled the standstill with an 8-6 win over Michael Venus and Neal Skupski, the No. 13 duo in the nation.
Earlier, Auburn's Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev took the first doubles win of the day, defeating James Cluskey and Mark Bowtell, 8-2. LSU then evened the doubles situation on court three as Sebastian Carlsson and Julien Gauthier beat Auburn's Milan Krnjetin and Michel Monteiro, 8-5.
"We came out and played well again in doubles," head coach Eric Shore mentioned. "We have to get better on court three, though, because we cannot keep depending on our top two teams."
The Tigers held the momentum in singles, with Lukas Marsoun starting the second half of play with a quick win over Neal Skupski, 6-1, 6-2.
"Lukas was great," Shore remarked. "He's had a history of success against LSU, clinching every match for us in the previous three years against them. Lukas has a lot of confidence and gave us a great lift today."
Following Marsoun, sophomore Tim Puetz continued his singles success with a victory against James Cluskey, 6-2, 6-1. The win brings the No. 105 Puetz to a 7-1 record on the season.
Putting the Bayou Bengals on the board, Mark Bowtell defeated Alex Petropoulos, 6-3, 6-2, bringing the match score to 3-1 in favor of Auburn. LSU gained another point as No. 9 Michael Venus beat Auburn's No. 69 Alexey Tsyrenov in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Ending LSU's singles push and clinching the match for Auburn was freshman Alex Stamchev, who defeated Sebastian Carlsson, 6-4, 6-4. The clinching point was the second of the season for the Auburn newcomer.
"It's nice to get your first SEC win on the road," Shore stated. "We played well in certain spots in singles, but we still have areas of improvement."
In the last match-up, Milan Krnjetin fell to Julien Gauthier, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
The win boosts Auburn to 6-2 overall and starts the Tigers at 1-0 in SEC play, while LSU comes to 4-3 and 0-1 in the SEC.
Next on the schedule for the Tigers will be Arkansas on Sunday.
"It's an extremely tough place to play and they have a very loud crowd," said Shore. "It's two matches this weekend and we know that Sunday will be tough. We're going to have to be road warriors."
The Tigers will travel to Fayetteville, Ark. as they take on No. 56 Arkansas on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Auburn vs LSU
(W.T. "Dub" Robinson Stadium)
Singles competition
1. #9 Michael Venus (LSU) def. #69 Alexey Tsyrenov (AUB), 6-4, 6-4
2. #105 Tim Puetz (AUB) def. James Cluskey (LSU), 6-2, 6-1
3. Lukas Marsoun (AUB) def. Neal Skupski (LSU), 6-1, 6-2
4. Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Milan Krnjetin (AUB), 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
5. Alex Stamchev (AUB) def. Sebastian Carlsson (LSU), 6-4, 6-4
6. Mark Bowtell (LSU) def. Alex Petropoulos (AUB), 6-3, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. #11 Alexey Tsyrenov/Tim Puetz (AUB) def. #13 Michael Venus/Neal Skupski (LSU), 8-6
2. Lukas Marsoun/Alex Stamchev (AUB) def. James Cluskey/Mark Bowtell (LSU), 8-2
3. Sebastian Carlsson/Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Milan Krnjetin/Michel Monteiro (AUB), 8-5
Match Notes:
Auburn 5-2; National ranking #26
LSU 4-2; National ranking #30
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (3,2,6,1,5)