The 2025-26 spring season for LSU was surprisingly underwhelming by LSU standards thanks to the shocking performance by the baseball team. The worst season since before Skip Bertman took over saw LSU miss the tournament for the first time since 2011. In addition, softball missed Oklahoma City yet again and pushed their drought to almost a decade. While the men’s track & field team managed to do very well with a fourth place finish, two other teams had great seasons that got overlooked.

LSU men’s tennis bounced back big

The 2025 LSU men’s tennis season was rough to say the least. The Tigers finished 86^th in the final rankings and were just 1-13 in SEC play. 2026 was far better. Freshmen Erik Arutiunian and Olaf Pieczkowski, the eventual SEC Freshman of the Year, took over the top singles courts and led the team to an impressive year. An opening 4-3 win at #25 Clemson was just the start of incredible things. The Tigers jumped into the top 25 with ranked wins over host Arizona and Pepperdine at ITA Kickoff Weekend to advance to the ITA Indoor National Championships for the first time since 2006. Their performance at indoor nationals vaulted the squad into the top 10 entering conference play.

LSU finished SEC play 10-4 and earned the #3 seed in the SEC tournament. In the quarterfinal against #6 seed Georgia, LSU looked like they were headed for a swift defeat after going down 3-0, but the final four singles courts pulled out clutch wins to pull off a shocking 4-3 win and give LSU their first win over Georgia since 1999. LSU lost their semifinal match, but they earned the #7 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and the right to host the first two rounds for the first time since 2009. After beating Alabama State 4-0 in the opening round, LSU lost a heartbreaker to Pepperdine 4-3 in the second round. Despite the result, LSU finished eighth in the ITA rankings at the end of the year for a massive 78-place improvement.

LSU women’s tennis built upon a strong 2025

In 2025, LSU women’s tennis soared to new heights when they beat Ohio State and won their first Super Regional in program history before falling in the national quarterfinals. The Tigers had their best season in the NCAA era, and they had another solid season in 2026. LSU won their first six matches in a row and got two ranked wins before falling to #1 Georgia at the ITA National Indoor Championships. LSU bounced back with a consolation round win over #9 NC State.

LSU entered SEC play ranked #4 in the nation, but they had a rough time there and finished 8-7 in conference play to earn the #9 seed in the SEC Tournament at Oklahoma. LSU went on a historic tournament run, though. After crushing Missouri in the opener 4-0, the Tigers beat #8-seed Tennessee 4-1, #1-seed Oklahoma 4-3 and #4-seed Georgia 4-1 to become the first team in tournament history to go from the opening round to the championship match. It was the program’s first appearance in the SEC championship match and came on the heels of their first win over Georgia since 1985. LSU put up a valiant effort, but #3-seed Auburn took the final court and won the title 4-3.

LSU earned the #10 overall seed in the NCAA tournament and got the right to host a regional for the second straight year. They blew past Stephen F. Austin 4-0 and cruised by Rice 4-1 to take the regional title. LSU then went to Charlottesville to take on #7 overall seed Virginia, and they got leads on enough courts to close things out with a 4-1 win that earned the Tigers a spot at NCAAs for the second time ever. The Tigers dropped their quarterfinal match to #2 overall seed Auburn 4-1, but they proved 2025 was anything but a fluke.

Of all the truths of the 2025-26 LSU season, the strangest of them all has to be that the most successful teams playing sports in which someone bats a ball were the tennis teams.