BATON ROUGE — The 26th-ranked LSU women’s tennis team was handed its worst defeat of the season Saturday as the 15th-ranked Ole Miss Lady Rebels swept the singles matches to take a 6-0 victory.
“Today was the first time all season where we were just totally outplayed by the other team,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “Ole Miss is an outstanding team and they played an almost perfect match today.”
LSU ended its regular season play with an overall record of 13-9 and a Southeastern Conference mark of 3-8. The Lady Tigers have finished with three conference wins for the past two seasons.
Ole Miss finished its regular season schedule with a 15-6 overall record and will enter next week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament at home in Oxford, Miss., with an 8-3 record versus conference opponents.
The Lady Tigers will head into postseason play in the midst of a losing streak for the fourth-straight season. LSU has not won a final regular season match since 1997.
Ole Miss is on a three-match winning streak and has defeated its last two opponents without giving up a point. The Lady Rebels were victorious over 21st-ranked South Carolina, 6-0, prior to sweeping LSU.
The Lady Tigers’ two nationally-ranked singles players, 10th-ranked Bruna Colosio and 66th-ranked Ana Paula Mores, were each defeated in straight sets to end their winning streaks.
Colosio’s 12-match winning streak was stemmed by Ole Miss’ 17th-ranked Ivona Mihailova, 6-3, 6-4, while the Lady Rebels’ 39th-ranked Celeste Frey ended Mores’ winning streak at 10 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory.
Ole Miss didn’t allow the Lady Tigers to win a set in Saturday’s 6-0 win.
“The way that they (Ole Miss) played today was some of the best tennis that I have seen in a while,” Minnis said. “They could’ve beaten any team in the country this afternoon.”
The Lady Rebels extended their winning streak versus LSU to nine-straight matches and the Lady Rebels lead the all-time series 14-9. The Lady Tigers’ last win against Ole Miss came during the 1991 season.
#15 Ole Miss: 6, #26 LSU: 0
SINGLES
No. 1: #17 Ivona Mihailova (UM) def. #10 Bruna Colosio (LSU), 6-3, 6-4.
No. 2: #39 Celeste Frey (UM) def. #66t Ana Paula Mores (LSU), 6-3, 6-4.
No. 3: T#66 Mariana Eberle (UM) def. Fernanda Tsucamoto (LSU), 6-1, 6-4.
No. 4: #33 Mira Radu (UM) def. Lauren Haddix (LSU), 7-5, 6-3.
No. 5: Alesya Ignatieva (UM) def. Tami Botts (LSU), 6-1, 6-1.
No. 6: Irena Mihailova (UM) def. Amy McIlhaney (LSU), 6-4, 6-4.