News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
BATON ROUGE – The No. 10 Texas A&M men’s tennis team took down the LSU Tigers, 5-2, Sunday at the LSU Tennis Complex.
“Very fortunate to win the doubles today and quite frankly the match,” head coach Steve Denton said. “Played two solid tiebreakers on courts 1 and 3 after being down a break to secure doubles. Today was a real grind. Hopefully these type of tough road wins will pay dividends in the tournament. We need all six guys to have their hand on the pump and unfortunately that didn’t happen today. We as coaches have to do a better job of preparing our guys for what is ahead. The tough-minded teams are the ones that make a run. We have a quick turnaround as we play a very in form Oklahoma team on Tuesday evening. In my opinion, we will need to be at our best to be victorious.”
Tiago Pires/Kenner Taylor fell to Chen Dong/Julien Penzlin on court 2, 6-3. However, JC Roddick/Lathan Skrobarcek defeated Welsh Hotard/Aleksi Lofman in a thriller on court 3, 7-6 (10-8). Clinching doubles for the Aggies (18-5, 7-2 SEC) was the pairing of No. 28 Giulio Perego/Togan Tokac which beat Stefan Latinovic/George Stoupe in a down to the wire match on court 1, 7-6 (7-3), where the duo dominated the tie breaker to secure the point.
Luke Casper took control on court 6 against Penzlin, winning in straight sets (6-1, 6-2) to extend the lead for A&M. Roddick carried that spark and took down Lofman on court 2 (7-5, 6-4). Clinching the victory for the Aggies was No. 33 Perot who came back from behind to secure the victory over Latinovic in a three-set thriller on court 1 (3-6, 6-4, 6-1).
The teams played out the remaining matches after the Maroon & White clinched. Perego earned the last win of the day for A&M against Alessio Vasquez on court 4 (6-4, 4-6, 6-3).
The Aggies travel to Norman to take on the No. 22 Oklahoma Sooners Tuesday, April 2.
TEAM NOTES
A&M is 5-2 on the road this season.
JC Roddick is 12-4 on court 2.
Raphael Perot is on a four-match winning streak.
MATCH STATS
Doubles
No. 28 Giulio Perego/Togan Tokac (TAMU) def. Stefan Latinovic/George Stoupe (LSU) 7-6 (7-3)
Chen Dong/Julien Penzlin (LSU) def. Tiago Pires/Kenner Taylor (TAMU) 6-3
JC Roddick/Lathan Skrobarcek (TAMU) def. Welsh Hotard/Aleksi Lofman (LSU) 7-6 (10-8)
Order of finish: 2, 3, 1*
Singles
No. 33 Raphael Perot (TAMU) def. Stefan Latinovic (LSU) 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
No. 24 JC Roddick (TAMU) def. Aleksi Lofman (LSU) 7-5, 6-4
George Stoupe (LSU) def. Togan Tokac (TAMU) 2-6, 6-3, 6-3
Giulio Perego (TAMU) def. Alessio Vasquez (LSU) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
Rudy Ceccon (LSU) def. Tiago Pires (TAMU) 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4
Luke Casper (TAMU) def. Julien Penzlin (LSU) 6-1, 6-2
Order of finish: 6, 2, 1, 3, 4, 5*