March 1, 2015

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky men’s tennis team fell to the LSU Tigers on Sunday afternoon at Dub Stadium in Baton Rouge, La., to cap off the opening weekend of Southeastern Conference action for the 2015 season.

With the loss, Kentucky falls to 6-8 overall on the season, and 0-2 in SEC play. The Wildcats are next in action on March 8 at 1 p.m. ET against the Tennessee Volunteers. Sunday’s match will serve as Kentucky’s SEC home opener for the 2015 season.

Kentucky was unable to win the doubles point for the second match in a row, as LSU was able to win the matches on courts one and two to secure the point. The Wildcats pairing on court one fell 6-3, while William Bushamuka and Jerry Lopez fell 6-4 on court two to secure the 1-0 lead for the Tigers.

The match, which was moved up to an 11:30 a.m. local start in fears of inclement weather then entered a rain delay for a little over 90 minutes with singles play stopped at 1-0 LSU.

After play resumes, LSU got wins on courts two and four to push its lead to 3-0 and put the Wildcats in a major hole.

The Wildcats then got a win on court three as momentum began to shift in UK’s direction as William Bushamuka won 7-6, 6-0 on court three over No. 125 Tam Trinh, his second win over a ranked opponent this season.

The three remaining matches all then were forced to third sets by the Wildcats, but LSU would claim the first of those three matches in third sets on court six, as Nils Ellefsen lost 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 on the anchor court to close the match.

Kentucky vs LSU

Mar 01, 2015 at Baton Rouge

(Dub Stadium)

#31 LSU 4, Kentucky 1

Singles competition

1. #64 Jordan Daigle (LSU) vs. #83 Beck Pennington (UK) 4-6, 7-6, 3-1, unfinished

2. #98 Chris Simpson (LSU) def. Jerry Lopez (UK) 6-2, 6-4

3. #122 William Bushamuka (UK) def. #125 Tam Trinh (LSU) 7-6, 6-0

4. Boris Arias (LSU) def. Kevin Lai (UK) 6-2, 7-5

5. #119 Justin Butsch (LSU) vs. Trey Yates (UK) 6-3, 4-6, 3-4, unfinished

6. Andrew Korinek (LSU) def. Nils Ellefsen (UK) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1

Doubles competition

1. #57 Boris Arias/Jordan Daigle (LSU) def. #45 Beck Pennington/Kevin Lai (UK) 6-3

2. Tam Trinh/Eric Perez (LSU) def. Jerry Lopez/William Bushamuka (UK) 6-4

3. Chris Simpson/Justin Butsch (LSU) vs. Nils Ellefsen/Trey Yates (UK) 4-4, unfinished

For more information on the Kentucky men’s tennis team, follow “UKMensTennis” on Twitter or “University of Kentucky men’s tennis team” on Facebook.