OXFORD, Miss. — The LSU women’s tennis team heads to Oxford, Miss., to face the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks Thursday in the opening round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
“We have another opportunity to beat Arkansas,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We lost a very close match to them earlier this season at Arkansas, and now we have the opportunity to redeem ourselves.”
LSU, which is the 10th-seed in the tournament, ended the regular season with an overall record of 13-9 and a 3-8 mark versus conference opponents. The Lady Tigers finished SEC play in a three-way tie for eighth-place with both Kentucky and Mississippi State.
The Lady Razorbacks enter the SEC Tournament as the seventh-seed by ending the season in sole possession of seventh-place in the conference. Arkansas finished 4-7 in SEC play with a 9-11 overall record.
Earlier this season, the Lady Razorbacks upset LSU, 5-4, in Fayetteville by handing the Lady Tigers their sixth Southeastern Conference loss of the season. The loss was LSU’s second in a row to the Lady Razorbacks.
Arkansas put an end to the Lady Tigers’ hopes of winning the SEC Tournament last season by defeating LSU, 5-2, in Baton Rouge.
“We’re really looking forward to playing Arkansas on Thursday,” Minnis said. “Our team wants to go farther in the tournament this year. We’ve lost in the first-round the past couple of seasons, but I think that we have the talent this year to go a lot farther.”
The Lady Tigers have not reached the second-round of the SEC Tournament since 1997 when they lost to Tennessee, 5-4. LSU advanced to face Tennessee by shutting out Auburn, 6-0, in the opening round of the tournament.
The Southeastern Conference Tournament match between the LSU Lady Tigers and the Arkansas Lady Razorbacks is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. in Oxford, Miss.