2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 26
Photos by Chynna McClinton & Courtney Garrigan
As a men’s tennis program in the SEC, looking at your
calendar to find that you have a matchup against Florida
in the near future is a punch in the gut. Their dominant
season of tennis has included 7-0 and 4-0 sweeps of No.
9 South Carolina and No. 11 Georgia respectively, an 8-2
record against teams ranked No. 12 and above and a perfect
record in conference play.
That occurred in the SEC, a conference that has five
teams ranked above No. 11 and all but two teams featured
in the top-50 (not including Arkansas, who is currently
ranked No. 51).
No. 42 LSU faced insurmountable odds in this one,
having not scored a single point against Florida in over
three years. But despite facing the onslaught of ranked
players and duos that is Florida tennis, the Tigers were a
few games away from creating a path to a legendary upset.
After losing in doubles 1-2, Florida dominated the first
sets of singles, only surrendering one of six. It seemed that
LSU’s run would quickly be put to rest in the quarterfinals.
That might’ve come true in the end, with three Tigers
losing in two sets to give Florida the points they needed,
but LSU was in a realistic position to split singles when
the match was clinched, with Kent Hunter holding a lead
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against No. 87 Duarte Vale and Gabriel Diaz Freire in
position to even his match and force a third set.
Vlad Lobak would ultimately lose to No. 27 Sam Riffice
to give the Gators their match-clinching point, but he didn’t
necessarily make the second set easy for his opponent.
Facing elimination from the tournament, Lobak managed
to even the score at 4-4 before being defeated in his last
two games, as Florida finally put away a team that had more
success than many expected.
Boris Kozlov was the lone victor for the Tigers, ending
LSU’s scoring drought against Florida with his fourth
straight two-set victory. He’s played tremendously well
down the stretch, putting LSU in positions to win in the last
four matches with mixed results.
It would have been interesting to see if the Tigers could
have pulled off the upset had Lobak evened his match on
Court 2, but the Tigers still exceeded their tournament
expectations and advanced, something they hadn’t done
since 2015 and have the potential to do in the NCAA
tournament if they are invited (something they have not
done since 2016). It will be interesting to see whether or not
this team has reached their season’s peak.