LEXINGTON, Ky. — The 24th-ranked LSU women’s tennis team travels to face the 25th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday, as the Lady Tigers look to pick up their third-Southeastern Conference victory of the season here at the Hilary J. Boone Tennis Center in Lexington, Ky.
“This is a really big match for us,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We are the 24th-ranked team in the nation and Kentucky comes in at No. 25. I think that we are both pretty evenly matched, and a win here will be great for us, because we’ve already gone through the toughest part of our schedule. In our past-six matches, we’ve played four teams ranked among the top nine in the country.”
The Lady Tigers head into Sunday’s match with an overall record of 10-5 on the season and a 2-4 mark versus SEC competition. LSU has earned conference wins over Alabama (5-2) and Mississippi State (4-3), while dropping tough SEC matches to No. 3 Georgia (5-1), No. 4 Vanderbilt (6-1), No. 5 Florida (6-1) and ninth-ranked Tennessee (6-1).
Kentucky enters the dual-match contest with a 9-3 overall record and an even 3-3 mark against SEC opponents. The Wildcats have defeated Ole Miss (6-1), Alabama (6-1) and Arkansas (4-1) in conference play this season, and have recorded losses to Vanderbilt (7-0), Florida (5-2) and Mississippi State (4-3). In Kentucky’s most-recent match, the Wildcats fell to seventh-ranked Notre Dame, 5-2, at home in a non-conference contest.
Last season, LSU was victorious over the Wildcats, 6-3, in the annual match-up between the two schools. At home in Baton Rouge, the Tigers evened the all-time series at 10-wins apiece and improved to an overall record of 10-5 on the season.
“I feel pretty confident going into this match,” Minnis said. “I feel like we should have the advantage of playing a tough schedule, and we’ve had some solid wins this season. We are really going to need to focus in this week and try to pick up a couple of wins in these road matches.”
Both LSU and Kentucky can boast the services of a nationally-ranked singles player. The Tigers’ Bruna Colosio heads into Sunday’s match as the 23rd-ranked player in the nation, while Kentucky’s Carolina Mayorga enters as the nation’s No. 80 singles player. Colosio has accumulated a 17-2 overall record this season and is 7-1 versus ranked opponents.
The Wildcats own two of the top-50 doubles teams in the nation. The combination of No. 25 Lauren Rookledge and Brooke Skeen will play in No. 1 doubles, while the 29th-ranked pair of Mayorga and Sarah Witten are schedule to compete on court No. 2.
LSU’s doubles tandem composed of Colosio and Rocio Fantilli heads into the contest as the 18th-ranked team in the nation. The Lady Tigers No. 1 doubles combination is 11-2 in dual matches this season.
The 24th-ranked LSU women’s tennis team will face the 25th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Lexington, Ky.