Friday, 02/22/2013

BATON ROUGE - The No. 24 LSU men's tennis (4-1) will host the No. 27 Texas Tech Red Raiders (5-3) on Friday at 3 p.m. CT at W.T. "Dub" Robinson Stadium.

The Tigers are 3-1 all-time against the Red Raiders with Texas Tech winning their last meeting, 4-0, in January 2011.

"This match is the start of the meat of the season," head coach Jeff Brown said. "We have an increase of match frequency and in our level of competition. Texas Tech is very similar to us in ranking and personnel and it will be an intense match."

Neither team has a ranked singles player, but LSU is led by the No. 35 duo of Chris Simpson and Stefan Szacinski in doubles. Texas Tech also does not have a ranked doubles pair.

The Tigers are coming off a 4-3 victory over No. 57 Rice on February 14 in Baton Rouge, largely due to freshman Harrison Kennedy filling in for Szacinski in singles and clinching the match on court six, earning his first dual-season career win.

After starting the season 3-0, Texas Tech dropped three straight matches, all against ranked opponents. The Red Raiders are currently on a two-match winning streak as they travel to Baton Rouge to face the Tigers.

This will be a student priority point match so come out and support the Tigers on Friday at 3 p.m. CT at the Dub and enjoy some free food.

For up-to-date information and behind the scenes access on the Tigers, fans can follow the LSU men's team on Twitter @lsutennis and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lsutennis.