Saturday, 09/12/2009

HOUSTON, Texas -- Four members of the LSU men’s tennis team notched wins on the opening day of the Rice Invitational on Friday at the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium.

 

Freshman Stefan Szacinski led the way notching a win in singles 7-6, 2-6, 1-0 against Tulane’s Joe Young before teaming up with sophomore Mark Bowtell to earn an 8-3 victory over Southern Methodist duo Tobias Flood and Michael Nusslein.

 

Junior Julien Gauthier marked a straight-set singles win in Flight A against SMU’s Bryan Griffin 7-5, 6-0 and freshman Roger Anderson also picked up a singles win after defeating Rice’s Andy Wang in Flight D 7-6 (6), 6-4.

 

Bowtell, James Turbervill and David Roberts each notched a first-set win before falling to their opponents as tiebreakers took the place of a third set.

 

“We had a lot of close matches,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “We won a few of them and overall, I feel we did a really good job, especially the new players. We just need to do a better job of closing the match when we are ahead.”

 

Competition continues tomorrow on the courts of the Jake Hess Tennis Stadium at 9 a.m. CDT as the players move through their respective flights. In case of inclement weather, competition will be moved to 1 p.m.

 

Rice Invitational

Sept. 11-13

Houston, Texas

Jake Hess Tennis Stadium

 

Singles

 

Flight A

Julien Gauthier (LSU) def. Bryan Griffin (SMU), 7-5, 6-0

Shayne Wali (Tulane) def. Mark Bowtell (LSU), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5), 1-0 (10-6)

 

Flight B

Sam Garforth-Bles (Rice) def. Cody Loup (LSU) 6-4, 6-4

Stefan Szacinski (LSU) def. Joe Young (Tulane) 7-6, 2-6, 1-0 (10-7)

 

Flight C

Adham El-Effendi (SMU) def. James Turbervill (LSU), 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7)

Dennis Polyakov (Rice) def. David Roberts (LSU), 2-6, 7-6 (3), 1-0 (10-4)

 

Flight D

Roger Anderson (LSU) def. Andy Wang (Rice), 7-6 (6), 6-4

 

Doubles

 

Flight A

Mark Bowtell/Stefan Szacinski (LSU) def. Drew Peterson/Tobias Flood, (SMU) 8-3

Michael Nusslein/Christian Saravia (Rice) def. Julien Gauthier/David Roberts (LSU) 8-5

 

Flight B

Sam Garforth-Bles/Dennis Polykov (Rice) def. Cody Loup/James Turbervill (LSU), 8-4

Andy Wang (Rice)/Roger Anderson (LSU)) def. Coby Kramer-Golinkoff/Etham Frenkel (Tulane), 8-3