University of Kentucky men’s tennis senior Edo Bawono, the nation’s 87th-ranked player, upended No. 11 Ajay Ramaswami ofLouisiana State, but the win wasn’t enough to lift No. 44 Kentucky past No. 16 LSU as the Cats fell 4-3 in Baton Rouge, La., on Friday,March 16.

Kentucky (7-7, 1-1 Southeastern Conference) fell behind early after losing the doubles point. The duo of Dan Kiernan andSebastian Rutka of LSU knocked off UK’s Gustav Pousette and Karim Benmansour, 8-3, at No. 1, while the Tiger tandem ofRamaswami and Bryan Fisher took out Matt Emery and Johan Grunditz at No. 3 to secure the point for LSU.

Bawono’s win in singles gave the Cats a huge lift, while Grunditz also knocked off a ranked opponent in No. 82 Jessie Smatt atNo. 5. Rahim Esmail grabbed a win at No. 6 as his opponent, Fisher, defaulted the match after dropping the first set. LSU grabbedstraight-set wins at No. 2, where Emery fell to Dan Kiernan, and No. 3, where Sanjin Sadovich topped Benmansour.

With the match riding on the No. 4 court, all eyes focused on UK’s Gustav Pousette and LSU’s Sebastian Rutka. Pousettedropped the first set 6-2 before battling back to take the second set by a close 7-5 margin, but Rutka came on strong in the third set,clinching the LSU victory with the 6-2 win.

Kentucky returns to action on Saturday, March 17, when the travel on to Mobile, Ala., to face South Alabama at 1:30 p.m. Thematch will wrap up three straight road matches over UK’s spring break.

Singles

No. 1 No. 87 Edo Bawono (UK) def. No. 11 Ajay Ramaswami (LSU) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
No. 2 Dan Kiernan (LSU) def. Matt Emery (UK) 6-0, 6-3
No. 3 Sanjin Sadovich (LSU) def. Karim Benmansour (UK) 6-4, 6-4
No. 4 Sebastian Rutka (LSU) def. Gustav Pousette (UK) ` 6-2, 5-7, 6-2
No. 5 Johan Grunditz (UK) def. No. 82 Jessie Smatt (LSU) 5-7, 6-1, 6-4
No. 6 Rahim Esmail (UK) def. Bryan Fisher (LSU) 7-6 (2), 1-0 (def.)

Doubles

No. 1 Kiernan/Rutka (LSU) def. Pousette/Benmansour (UK) 8-3
No. 2 No. 41 Smatt/Sadovich (LSU) vs. Bawono/Reven Stephens (UK) Not Played
No. 3 Ramaswami/Fisher (LSU) def. Emery/Grunditz (UK) 8-2