PALO ALTO, Calif. — The LSU mixed tennis team comprised of Ajay Ramaswami, Dan Kiernan, Fernanda Tsucamoto, and Amy McIlhaney lost in its first round match of the 2000 WingspanBank.com/ WTT National Collegiate Tennis Championships to Minnesota, 28-27, in a supertiebreaker.
“I’m extremely proud of the way that our team played today,” said LSU head men’s coach Jeff Brown. “We battled through two very close, tough matches, and were able to come away with a win against Clemson in the consolation match.”
In the opening round of the tournament, LSU jumped out to an early lead as the Lady Tigers’ McIlhaney and Tsucamoto defeated Minnesota’s Michaela Havelkova and Amy Thomas, 6-5, in the women’s doubles match.
The Tigers then extended the lead to 18-14 as LSU’s Ramaswami picked up a 6-5 win over Thomas Haig in the men’s singles match, and then helped Kiernan defeat Minnesota’s duo of Harsh Mankad/Haig, 6-4, in the men’s doubles competition.
Minnesota began its comeback in the women’s singles match where Havelkova edged past the Lady Tigers’ Tsucamoto, 6-4. The Golden Gophers’ mixed doubles team comprised of Mankad/Thomas tied the contest at 27 with a 6-4 win over LSU’s Kiernan/McIlhaney.
With the match tied at 27, the same mixed doubles teams played a supertiebreaker in which Minnesota came away with a 7-6 victory. The Golden Gophers moved on to the second round with a 28-27 win over the Tigers.
“It was a shame that it had to end that way,” said LSU head women’s coach Tony Minnis. “Our team fought extremely hard today, but Minnesota did a great job, and they made the shots at the end when it counted.”
In the consolation match, the Tigers defeated Clemson, 26-25. Earlier in the day, Clemson was victorious over Southern California, 28-23.