BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team was swamped by the fourth-ranked Florida Gators on Sunday, as the Lady Tigers dropped their first Southeastern Conference match of the season, 6-1, at home in the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“We just got a good old-fashioned whooping out there today,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “Anytime you come out flat and relaxed against a team of Florida’s caliber, that’s exact what is going to happen, and it happened to us today. We just need to regroup and get ready for another tough match against Vanderbilt tomorrow.”
With the loss, LSU dropped to an overall record of 8-2 on the season and a 2-1 mark versus SEC opponents. Florida remained undefeated in dual matches this season and improved its overall record to 5-0. The Gators also took sole possession of the conference’s first-place position with a 3-0 SEC record.
The Lady Tigers were in trouble from the start of the match on Sunday.
Florida picked up the doubles point with ease as the Gators’ No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams won by scores of 8-2 and 8-1. The 14th-ranked duo of Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnhoff clinched the doubles point for Florida on court No. 2 with an 8-2 victory over the Lady Tigers’ Fernanda Tsucamoto and Amy McIlhaney.
Mandy Rice, the Lady Tigers’ senior from New Orleans, picked up LSU’s only point against Florida. On court No. 5, Rice outlasted the Gators’ 92nd-ranked Julia Scaringe in a third-set super-tiebreaker, 10-8. The LSU senior dominated the first set of the match, 6-0, but dropped the second, 1-6, to force the super tiebreaker.
Rice was also a major factor in the Lady Tigers’ lone-doubles win of the match. Partnered with freshman Rocio Fantilli, Rice helped lead LSU to a victory in the No. 3 doubles competition. The combination of Rice and Fantilli defeated Florida’s Lindsey Dawaf and Annika Bengtsson, 8-5.
LSU missed the services of its 44th-ranked Bruna Colosio on Sunday. The Lady Tigers’ No. 1 singles player and a part of the 13th-ranked doubles team in the nation was forced to sit out of the match due to a recurring injury to her serving shoulder. The team trainers are confident that Colosio will be able to compete against seventh-ranked Vanderbilt on Monday.
“I was disappointed with the way that we played today,” Minnis said. “We didn’t come out with any energy or excitement and Florida took advantage of it. I know that we missed Bruna (Colosio) a lot in the match, but that’s no excuse for the rest of the girls. They didn’t give the type of effort that was needed to win.”
Florida increased its all-time record versus the Lady Tigers to 25-0.
The LSU women’s tennis team will next be in action on Monday at 2 p.m. against the No. 7 Vanderbilt Commodores. Vanderbilt heads into the match with an overall record of 10-1 on the season. The Commodores achieved a 1-0 mark in the SEC by sweeping Kentucky, 8-0. Vanderbilt’s lone loss of the season was a 5-1 defeat against top-ranked Stanford in the ITA Team Indoor Championships.
#4 Florida 6, LSU 1
Singles
1. #27 Whitney Laiho (UF) def. Rocio Fantilli (LSU), 6-0, 6-3.
2. #25 Jessica Lehnhoff (UF) def. Lauren Haddix (LSU), 6-2, 6-0.
3. #50 Lindsey Dawaf (UF) def. Tami Botts (LSU), 6-3, 6-4.
4. Stephanie Hazlett (UF) def. Fernanda Tsucamoto (LSU), 6-2, 6-1.
5. Mandy Rice (LSU) def. #92 Julia Scaringe (UF), 6-0, 1-6, 10-8.
6. Annika Bengtsson (UF) def. Amy McIlhaney (LSU), 6-0, 6-1.
Doubles
1. #14 Laiho/Lehnhoff (UF) def. Tsucamoto/McIlhaney (LSU), 8-2.
2. Scaringe/Hazlett (UF) def. Botts/Haddix (LSU), 8-1.
3. Fantilli/Rice (LSU) def. Dawaf/Bengtsson (UF), 8-5.