Singles Play Leads No. 5 Tennessee past No. 40 LSU, 4-1

Friday, April 9

Knoxville, TN

2:30 PM

University of Tennessee

LSU

Singles Play Leads No. 5 Tennessee past No. 40 LSU, 4-1

April 09, 2021 | Men's Tennis

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – After a tough loss of the doubles point, four dominant straight-set victories in singles play led the No. 5 Tennessee men's tennis team past No. 40 LSU, 4-1 on Friday afternoon at Barksdale Stadium.

The win is UT's (20-3, 9-2 SEC) 19th consecutive victory at home, while LSU (11-10, 3-7 SEC) fell for the fourth time in its last five matches.

LSU took the early lead following doubles after grabbing a 6-3 win on court two, quickly followed by a 6-4 win on court one to take a 1-0 lead into singles action.

The Tennessee pair of graduate student Giles Hussey and senior Mark Wallner were leading 5-3 and serving for the match when doubles play was halted.

In singles, the Vols bounced back and rolled to four easy wins to clinch the match at 4-1.

Graduate student Luca Wiedenmann did what he does best and quickly tied the score at 1-1, with a dominant, 6-1, 6-0 effort on court four, downing LSU's Benjamin Ambrosio.

Senior Andrew Rogers followed minutes later with a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over Tomas Descarrega con court six. Rogers trailed 3-4 early in the opening set, before reeling off wins in nine of the next 10 games to clinch his match.

Hussey immediately followed Rogers with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Ben Koch to increase Tennessee's lead to 3-1 with three matches left on court.

With the Vols on the brink of clinching, freshman Johannus Monday fought back from 0-40 in his final game to breeze past Joao Graca, 6-3, 6-3, to give UT its 20th victory of the season.

Senior Adam Walton and junior Martim Prata were both leading their respective matches when play was stopped for the afternoon.

LUCA IS AS LUCA DOES
Luca Wiedenmann's dominant, 6-1, 6-0 victory marked the 111th singles win of his career at Tennessee. A win in Sunday's match against Texas A&M would push him into a tie for seventh on UT's all-time singles wins list with VFL, Adam Carey.

GILES FINDING GROOVE AT RIGHT TIME
Giles Hussey's victory at No. 5 is his fifth consecutive victory in singles play, with four of those wins coming in straight-set fashion.

Hussey is also riding a three-match win streak in doubles with partner Mark Wallner—a streak that nearly became four had doubles play not been stopped.

SEC TOURNAMENT SCENARIOS
Tennessee's win on Friday means the Vols are locked into a top three seed at the SEC Tournament in Fayetteville, April 19-23. A win on Sunday would clinch the two seed for the Vols, while a loss would leave them waiting on the results of Texas A&M's match with Alabama on April 17 to determine the final seeding.

UP NEXT
Tennessee returns to action on Sunday afternoon for its SEC and regular season finale against eighth-ranked Texas A&M. First serve from Barksdale Stadium is slated for 1 p.m. ET following the senior day ceremony honoring Andrew Rogers, Joel Gamerov, Giles Hussey and Luca Wiedenmann.

RESULTS
Doubles