BATON ROUGE – – The 23rd-ranked LSU women’s tennis team fell to the 33rd-ranked Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs, 6-3, Saturday afternoon at the “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“It was an extremely tough match for us today,” said head coach Tony Minnis. “Mississippi State is a very talented team and they stepped it up when they needed to. We lost a couple of close matches that could have changed the outcome, but we can’t dwell on this loss because we have a difficult match tomorrow against Texas A&M.”
The Lady Tigers dropped to a 4-1 overall record and 0-1 in Southeastern Conference play, while the Lady Bulldogs improved to 3-1, 1-0. Mississippi State has won the previous two matches versus LSU. The Lady Tigers were last victorious against the Lady Bulldogs in 1998 in Baton Rouge where LSU won by the score of 6-3.
In singles play, Mississippi State jumped to an early 4-2 lead. The Lady Tigers won in both No. 1 and No. 2 singles, but came up short in courts No. 3-6.
LSU’s 20th-ranked Bruna Colosio defeated 60th-ranked Amelie Detriviere in court No. 1, while on court No. 2 the Lady Tigers’ 37th-ranked Ana Paula Mores won over Mississippi State’s 93rd-ranked Ivana Belancic. Colosio was victorious by the score of 6-4, 6-2, and Mores won 6-4, 6-4.
With the score 3-2 in singles play, Mississippi State’s Andrea Lord came back from a one-set deficit to beat LSU’s Lauren Haddix, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. Lord’s comeback win on court No. 5 made it a 4-2 contest and put the Lady Tigers in a position where they had to win all three doubles matches in order to defeat the Lady Bulldogs.
In doubles, Mississippi State’s team of Detriviere/Oliviera clinched the match by winning on court No. 3 over LSU’s duo of Haddix/Kelly Craycraft, 8-1. On court No. 1 the Lady Tigers’ 20th-ranked doubles team of Colosio/Mores was upset, 9-7, by Mississippi State’s pair of Belancic/Soubia.
Tsucamoto/McIlhaney picked up the final point for the Lady Tigers as they defeated the Lady Bulldogs’ Lord/Mattson, 8-6, in No. 2 doubles.
The No. 23 Lady Tigers will next be in action Sunday, February 12, as they host the 37th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies. Texas A&M has a 2-1 overall record on the season, while their only loss came against No. 18 Northwestern on Friday, 6-3. The match will begin at 1 p.m. at the “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Mississippi State 6, LSU 3 (4-1, 0-1 SEC)
Singles
No. 1 #20 Bruna Colosio (LSU) def. #60 Amelie Detriviere (MSU), 6-4, 6-2
No. 2 #37 Ana Paula Mores (LSU) def. #93 Ivana Belancic (MSU), 6-4, 6-4
No. 3 Carole Soubie (MSU) def. Fernanda Tsucamoto (LSU), 6-3, 6-1
No. 4 Claudia Oliveira (MSU) def. Tami Botts (LSU), 6-4, 6-3
No. 5 Andrea Lord (MSU) def. Lauren Haddix (LSU), 5-7, 6-4, 6-2
No. 6 Anca Vasiloaica (MSU) def. Amy McIlhaney (LSU), 6-3, 6-1
Doubles
No. 1 Belancic-Soubia (MSU) def. Colosio-Mores (LSU), 9-7
No. 2 McIlhaney-Tsucamoto (LSU) def. Lord-Mattsson (MSU), 8-6
No. 3 Detriviere-Oliveira (MSU) def. Haddix-Craycraft (LSU), 8-1