Minnesota Upsets LSU, 4-2, to Advance to NCAA Second Round
May 13, 2006
CORAL GABLES, <?xml:namespace prefix=”st1″ ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags”?>Fla.– Minnesota junior Brian Lipinski (Winona, Minn.) claimed a three-set victory at No. 6 singles to clinch No. 41 Minnesota’s 4-2 upset over No. 22 LSU in the opening match of the 2006 NCAA Men’s Tennis Coral Gables Regional at the Neil Schiff Tennis Center on the campus of the University of Miami Saturday afternoon. <?xml:namespace prefix=”o” ns=”urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”?>
Minnesota (14-12) advances to Sunday’s 12 p.m. second-round match against the winner of today’s Miami/Manhattan match. The winner of Saturday’s match advances to the NCAA Championship Round of 16, May 20-23, in Stanford, Calif.
The Golden Gophers won four singles matches in the close contest that saw all but one singles match go to three sets.
LSU (15-10) got on the board first after capturing the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. Playing at the No. 2 slot, LSU’s 38th ranked Danny Bryan/Colt Gaston tandem downed Minnesota’s Andres Osorio/D.J. Geatz pair, 8-3. LSU then clinched to point at the No. 1 position when 14th ranked Mark Growcott and Ken Skupski defeated Raoul Schwark and Adrien Debreyne, 8-3.
Schwark, a sophomore out of Dalheim, Germany, tied the score at one-all with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over freshman James Cluskey (Dublin, Ireland) at the No. 5 position.
The Tigers regained the lead after Skupski, a junior out of Liverpool, England who is ranked 20th nationally, downed 59th ranked Geatz, a junior Minneapolis, Minn. native, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 at the No. 1 slot.
Minnesota took the lead for good when Debreyne, a senior out of Mons en Baroeul, France, upended Bryan, a junior from New Orleans, La., 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 at the No. 4 position.
Junior Nic Edlefsen (Eden Prairie, Minn.), gave the Gophers a 3-2 lead with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 come-from-behind victory at the No. 3 spot over Gaston, a sophomore Rome, Ga. native.
Lipinski then clinched the win for Minnesota at the No. 6 position by defeating sophomore Kevin Dessauer (New Orleans, La.) in three-sets, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5.
