The UK men’s tennis team beat No. 30 LSU 6-1 to improve their record to 7-3 in SEC play at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Complex on Sunday.

No. 12 UK started out by winning all three doubles matches to start off the match.

“We knew this was going to be a really tough match coming in. LSU is one of the hottest teams in the conference,” head coach Dennis Emery said after the match.

“We all started down in the doubles,” Senior Brad Cox said after the match. “We were all down 4-2 on every single court in the doubles and everybody pulled back. We all put a lot of intensity and everybody fought back.”

The Cats then won two straight singles matches, starting with Cox defeating LSU’s Stefan Szacinski in a two-setter.

The Cats started slow in all of the singles matches, but fought back to close out the win and defeat the Tigers.

“Their team was very hot,” Emery said. “In singles, we let LSU jump on us and turn the match around a little bit, but I thought we fought back very well.”

Julien Gauthier was the lone Tiger to win a match for LSU Sunday. The Cats claimed the next three match victories when LSU’s Sebastian Carlsson retired and UK’s Alberto Gonzalez defeated Mark Bowtel.

With UK’s 7-3 record in SEC play, the Cats hope to defeat Vanderbilt on the road to boost them toward the postseason in these positioning matches.

“If we can go down to Vanderbilt and win next weekend, which is going to be tough, we’ll finish no less than third in the conference,” Emery said. “The match also helps us in terms of positioning for hosting an NCAA regional. You have to be top-16, so this is a big match for the SEC and for NCAA purposes.”