BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team dropped from No. 24 to No. 31 Wednesday as the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s poll was released.
“It’s always a little disappointing to drop in the rankings, but this season we have played some extremely tough teams,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We might drop a little in the rankings now, but the team will advance farther in the NCAA Championships because of it.”
The Lady Tigers have an overall record of 8-5 this season, but are 0-4 in the Southeastern Conference. LSU’s four SEC losses have come against No. 3 Georgia, No. 6 Florida, No. 19 South Carolina, and No. 24 Mississippi State.
In LSU’s previous match the Lady Tigers defeated Southern Methodist, 8-1, in Dallas, Texas to end their four match losing streak. LSU was victorious over SMU for the ninth-straight meeting.
LSU sophomore Bruna Colosio improved her national singles ranking to No. 13 with two wins over higher ranked opponents since the last poll. Colosio moved up from the No. 16 spot.
Colosio defeated Georgia’s eighth-ranked Aartha Venkatesan, 3-6, 6-3, 6-0, and South Carolina’s 14th-ranked Katarina Markovski in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Colosio, from Cascaval, Brazil has a 23-6 overall record this season.
The Lady Tigers’ senior leader and team captain, Ana Paula Mores, remained ranked 64th in the nation this week. Mores has an overall record of 22-6, and has only been beaten three times in her last 22 matches.
“Both Ana and Bruna are playing the way that we had hoped this season,” Minnis said. “But they are still capable of better. The talent that these two girls possess is astounding, and with just a little more work they have the possibility of being ranked even higher.”
In doubles, the Lady Tiger duo of Colosio/Mores jumped six spots in the rankings up to No. 16. The tandem has won three-straight matches and upset the ninth-ranked team of Marissa Catlin and Lori Grey of Georgia.
The LSU Lady Tigers will next be in action Friday, March 17 against SEC rival Alabama. The match is set to begin at 2 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, Ala.