Hog Netters Welcome No. 16 LSU Saturday for Senior Day
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas will host its annual Senior Day Saturday afternoon as the 25th-ranked Razorbacks take on 16th-ranked LSU in the SEC regular season finale at the Wal-Mart Life & Tennis Center in Bentonville.
To get the Wal-Mart Tennis Center, take Exit 86 off I-540 in Bentonville and go west. The tennis courts are located directly off the road about a mile from the interstate. If the weather does not cooperate, the match will be moved indoors to the Dills Indoor Tennis Center on the UA campus.
Arkansas (15-8, 5-5 SEC) will honor three seniors who have made a huge impact on the Razorback program. Rohan Gajjar, Matt Roberts and Adrians Zguns are each four-year letterman and have been fixtures in Coach Robert Cox’s lineup for each of the past four years. The trio has combined to win 253 singles matches in their Razorback careers.
Gajjar, of Mumbai, India, has been perhaps the Razorbacks’ most consistent player in his four-year career. He has played in each of the top three spots the past two seasons, and has notched at least 19 wins in each of the past three seasons. He earned first-team All-SEC honors in 2005 after posting 21 wins and advancing to the NCAA Individual Draw Singles Tournament. He clinched each of the Razorback victories in the 2004 NCAA Tournament, as the Hogs went on the Sweet 16. Gajjar has been nationally ranked in every poll since the beginning of his junior season.
Roberts has put together two of the best back-to-back seasons in school history. After racking up 26 wins, tied for tenth on the UA single-season list, a year ago en route to earning All-SEC accolades, the Little Rock, Ark. native has tallied 25 wins in 2006, giving him a 51-18 record since the beginning of his junior season. He has been ranked as high as No. 24 in the country, and has played in each of the top three spots for the Hogs in 2006. Roberts’ 81 career victories place in the top ten all time at Arkansas.
Zguns will leave Arkansas with his name littered throughout the record book. The Liepafa, Latvia product is one of only four players in school history to record 100 victories for his career, and will end his career in the top five for career singles wins, single-season wins (4th with 36 in 2004) and career winning percentage (.709). He has been ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation, and garnered All-SEC honors in 2004. He was also the ITA Central Region Rookie of Year in 2003 after going 24-9 as a freshman.
LSU (14-7, 7-3) brings in one of the nation’s toughest doubles lineups. The Tigers have won the doubles point in nine straight dual matches. The Tigers are led by 21st-ranked junior Ken Skupski. LSU lost their last outing at Auburn, April 9, 4-3, and is currently in a tie for first in the SEC Western Division and for second overall in the SEC.
The Razorbacks and Tigers met earlier this season at the ITA National Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash., with LSU winning, 4-1. The Tigers won the schools’ contest a year ago in Baton Rouge, 4-2, and the last meeting in Fayetteville, 5-2, in 2004.
First serve for Saturday’s match is set for 1 p.m. at the Wal-Mart Life & Tennis Center in Bentonville. If the weather is questionable, please call (479) 575-4949 after 11 a.m. for definite match location. The ceremony honoring Arkansas three seniors will be held following the doubles point.
Download: tennis program.pdf
