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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Tigers Breeze Past Arkansas 4-0
4/17/2003 | Men's Tennis
April 17, 2003
OXFORD, Miss. - The 18th-ranked LSU men's tennis team advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament for the 13th-consecutive season on Thursday as the Tigers earned a 4-0 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks here in Oxford, Miss.
The fifth-seeded Tigers advanced in the four-day event to face the 14th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats at 8 a.m. on Friday. Kentucky is the No. 4 seed in the tournament and received a first-round bye.
"The doubles point was a very big point for us," said LSU head coach Jeff Brown. "I don't think that we played that well in it, but fortunately we were able to get through it. Arkansas played us a lot better than they did a few days ago. They fought very hard and I have to give them a lot of credit. We are going to have to play better tomorrow in order to beat Kentucky."
LSU (13-9) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on Thursday as the Tigers recorded wins on courts Nos. 1 and 2 to secure the critical doubles point.
On court No. 2, LSU's doubles combination of Cory Ross and Sebastian Rutka cruised to an 8-3 victory over Arkansas' Matt Roberts and Adrians Zguns. The Tiger tandem opened the match by winning six of the first seven games. With the win, Ross and Rutka improved to an overall record of 18-5 on the season.
The Tigers' 21st-ranked tandem of Bryan Fisher and Jason Hazley clinched the doubles point with a 9-8(1) victory over Arkansas' Aleksey Bubis and Eduardo Pacheco.
After falling to a 3-0 deficit in the match, LSU's Fisher and Hazley reeled off wins in three straight games of their own and then held serve for the remainder of the match. The Tigers' No. 1 duo controlled the momentum of the contest heading into the tiebreaker and tallied a 7-1 victory.
"It's always good to win," Brown said. "The SEC is always tough and we knew that it was going to be a difficult match. It was also good playing the early match, because you know what time that it is going to start and you can get prepared for it that way."
LSU extended its lead to 3-0 in singles play with straight-set victories from Rutka and Ross. Rutka outplayed the Razorbacks' Roberts' on court No. 4, 6-1, 6-2, while the 117th-ranked Ross rallied past Rohan Gajjar in the No. 5 singles match. With the 6-4, 6-3 win, Ross upped his overall record on the season to 23-10.
The Tigers' Paul White registered the match-clinching win on court No. 6 with a three-set victory over Arkansas' Talley Parker. LSU's freshman from Lake Charles, used the 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 win to improve to 16-14 on the season. White finished the regular season with an impressive 6-4 mark against SEC opponents.
With the 4-0 victory, LSU extended its winning streak against Arkansas to 14-consecutive matches and recorded its second shutout victory over the Razorbacks in less than a week. The Tigers swept Arkansas, 7-0, in their conference finale on Saturday.
The LSU men's tennis team will resume play in the 2003 SEC Tournament on Friday as the Tigers challenge the 12th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats at 8 a.m. at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center here in Oxford, Miss.