2004 Division I Men's Tennis Championship:
LSU 4, Southern 0
May 15, 2004
BATON ROUGE -- LSU beat Southern quickly Saturday, 4-0, in the
first round of the NCAA Tournament to make up for the morning's
rain-delayed start.
LSU will play tomorrow against the winner of this afternoon's Rice-South Alabama
match for the chance to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in Tulsa, Okla.
"We took care of business in doubles and set the tone early in singles," said
LSU head coach Jeff Brown. "Because of not knowing if it was going to
rain again, we closed it out in a timely fashion and conserved our energy for
tomorrow's match."
The No. 13-ranked Tigers (18-6) will have a tough task in the second round
as they face either No. 14 Rice or South Alabama, which eliminated LSU in the
first round of last year's championship tournament.
The second round match will begin at 1 p.m. at Dub Robinson Stadium on LSU's
campus. If LSU wins, it advances to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001.
LSU's doubles tandems of Bryan Fisher and Jason Hazley at the No. 1 position
and Cory Ross and Sebastian Ruka at No. 2 earned wins to secure the doubles
point for LSU.
Hazley beat Alejandro Galindo on singles court No. 2 and Rutka beat Christopher
Williams on No. 4 to extend the Tigers' lead.
LSU's 30th-ranked freshman, Ken Skupski, beat David Ensignia, 6-1, 6-2 at
No. 1 singles to clinch the match for the Tigers.
Singles:
1. #30 Ken Skupski (LSU) def. David Ensignia (SU) 6-1, 6-2
2. Jason Hazley (LSU) def. Alejandro Galindo (SU) 6-1, 6-0
3. Bryan Fisher (LSU) vs. Alex Hidalgo (SU) 6-2, 4-2, unfinished
4. Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Christopher Williams (SU) 6-1, 6-1
5. Peter Richman (LSU) vs. Michael Date (SU) 6-3, 3-1, unfinished
6. Cory Ross (LSU) vs. Gregory Pipkins (SU) 6-1, 3-4, unfinished
Doubles:
1. #13 Jason Hazley/Bryan Fisher (LSU) def. David Ensignia/Alex Hidalgo (SU)
8-1
2. Cory Ross/Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Gregory Pipkins/Paul DeRousselle (SU)
8-2
3. Ken Skupski/Peter Richman (LSU) vs. Michael Date/Christopher Williams (SU)
7-2, unfinished
