COLUMBIA, S.C. — The 24th-ranked LSU women’s tennis team dropped its second-straight Southeastern Conference road contest on Wednesday, as the Lady Tigers were defeated by the 22nd-ranked South Carolina Lady Gamecocks, 5-2, here in Columbia, S.C.
“South Carolina is a very talented team and they definitely were ready to play today,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We haven’t been playing very well on the road lately and it seemed as if we came out a bit tentative in today’s match. It was a tough loss for us, but we just need to look past it and get ready for Auburn on Saturday.”
With the loss, the Lady Tigers dropped to an overall record of 12-8 on the season and fell to a 3-7 mark in SEC play. South Carolina improved to 13-7 in dual-match contests and 7-4 against conference opponents. The Lady Gamecocks have only been defeated by LSU once in the history of the rivalry and South Carolina leads the all-time series 11-1. The Lady Tigers’ lone victory in the series was a 5-4 win in 1984.
The Lady Gamecocks jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in Wednesday’s match as South Carolina swept all three doubles matches to earn the doubles point.
The Lady Gamecocks’ 25th-ranked tandem comprised of Jennifer Radman and Kathy Boyanovich clinched the point with an 8-6 upset victory over LSU’s 14th-ranked pair of Bruna Colosio and Rocio Fantilli.
In singles play, South Carolina dominated the action in all of the matches except on courts No.’s 1 and 5.
The Tigers’ ninth-ranked Colosio remained undefeated in SEC competition this season as she recorded a 6-4, 6-4, victory over the Lady Gamecocks’ Radman on court No. 1. With the win, Colosio earned LSU’s first point of the contest and improved her overall record to 22-3 on the season. Colosio is a perfect 9-0 against SEC opponents this season.
LSU’s Fernanda Tsucamoto extended her winning streak to five-straight matches on Wednesday, as the Lady Tigers’ senior overcame a first-set deficit to defeat South Carolina’s Tamara Sutton, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-6).
Tsucamoto notched the team’s second point of the match and improved her overall record to 20-12 on the season.
“Both Bruna and Fernanda are playing brilliant tennis right now,” Minnis said. “They are doing a good job of winning their singles matches, but we still need to focus on our doubles play as a team. We need to start winning the doubles points so that we can get the early momentum of the match and hopefully that will carry over to singles.”
The LSU women’s tennis team closes out its regular season schedule on Saturday, as the Lady Tigers host the Auburn Lady Tigers at 1 p.m. in the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium. The contest will be LSU’s final home match of the season and Tiger seniors Mandy Rice and Tsucamoto will be honored during the match.
#22 South Carolina: 5, #24 LSU: 2
Doubles
1. #25 Radman/Boyanovich (USC) def. #14 Colosio/Fantilli (LSU) 8-6
2. #21 Eichelberger/Tan (USC) def. McIlhaney/Tsucamoto (LSU) 8-6
3. Markovski/Brown (USC) def. Botts/Haddix (LSU) 8-5
Singles
1. #8 Bruna Colosio (LSU) def. Jennifer Radman (USC) 6-4, 6-4
2. #97 Katarina Markovski (USC) def. Lauren Haddix (LSU) 6-1, 6-4
3. Kathy Boyanovich (USC) def. Rocio Fantilli (LSU) 6-3, 6-1
4. Lynn-Yin Tan (USC) def. Tami Botts (LSU) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
5. Fernanda Tsucamoto (LSU) def. Tamara Sutton (USC) 3-6, 6-3, 1-0(10-6)
6. Leigh Eichelberger (USC) def. Amy McIlhaney (LSU) 6-3, 6-2