BATON ROUGE, La. — The tailspin by the Texas A&M men’s tennis team to end the regular season bled into the postseason as LSU won the last two singles matches in rallying for a 4-3 victory over the Aggies in the second round of the Southeastern Conference men’s tournament at the LSU Tennis Complex on Thursday.
A&M (18-10) won the doubles point and after LSU won the first two matches in singles, the 14th-ranked Aggies went back in front 3-2 after identical 6-4, 6-4 victories by 24th-ranked Raphael Perot and Tiago Pires.
LSU (15-12) pulled off the upset with a pair of three-set victories. Welsh Hotard defeated Luke Casper 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 on the sixth line to tie the match. Alessio Vazquez on the second line defeated JC Roddick 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 (10-8) to clinch the match. It was LSU’s fourth win in singles.
It was A&M’s fifth straight loss, the third by 4-3. A&M’s last victory was 5-2 over the Tigers on March 31 at the LSU Tennis Center. A&M won the doubles point that day and then made quick work of things in singles with Casper on the sixth line and Roddick on the second line winning in straight sets to make it 3-0. Perot won in three sets on the top line to clinch it at 4-0. The remaining matches went three sets with LSU winning two.
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LSU, which went 1-11 in SEC play and was seeded 13th for the tourney, beat 12th-seeded Ole Miss 4-1 in the first round.
The Tigers will play fourth-seeded Auburn on Friday.
Thursday’s other scores were seventh-seeded Florida 4, 10th-seeded Vanderbilt 2; 11th-seeded South Carolina 4, sixth-seeded Alabama 2; ninth-seeded Arkansas 4, eighth-seeded Georgia 1
A&M’s next action will be revealed during the NCAA Selection Show on 29 at 5 p.m., when the 64-team field is announced.
LSU 4, No. 14 A&M 3
Singles
#24 Raphael Perot, A&M, def. Stefan Latinovic 6-4, 6-4; Alessio Vazquez, LSU, def. #38 JC Roddick 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-8); Rudy Ceccon, LSU, def. Togan Tokac 6-3, 6-1; Julien Penzlin, LSU, def. Giulio Perego 6-1, 6-4; Tiago Pires, A&M, def. Chen Dong 6-4, 6-4; Welsh Hotard, LSU, def. Luke Casper 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
Order of finish: 4, 3, 1, 5, 6, 2*
Doubles
#16 Perego/Tokac, A&M, def. #59Dong/Penzlin 7-6 (7-5); Roddick/Lathan Skrobarcek, A&M, def. Ben Koch/Latinovic 6-2; Hotard/Aleksi Lofman, LSU, vs. Perot/ Pires 6-6 (3-2), DNF
Order of finish: 2, 1*