BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team will enter the 2002 dual-match season as the 27th-ranked team in the nation according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s national rankings which were released on Tuesday.
“With all of the injuries that we had during the fall season, I’m pleased that the committee ranked us No. 27,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “They usually put the basis of all their rankings on the fall season, and we had two starters who didn’t even play a single match in the fall. We’re all healthy now and we’re looking forward to getting the season underway.”
The Southeastern Conference dominated the rankings as SEC representatives occupied four of the top-10 positions in the poll. Stanford earned the No. 1 ranking and was followed by Florida, Duke, Vanderbilt and Georgia to round out the top-five teams. Tennessee notched the No. 6 ranking, while South Carolina was No. 21, Kentucky was No. 23, and Alabama came in as the No. 26 team in the nation.
The Lady Tigers’ No. 27 ranking is one position higher than the No. 28 ranking that the team finished the 2001 dual-match season with after qualifying for its seventh-straight NCAA Tournament appearance. LSU ended last season with a 14-10 record.
The Lady Tigers will face a challenging schedule this season as seven of their opponents are ranked among the top-25 teams in the country. LSU will face each of its 12 SEC foes this season and host the 19th-ranked Texas A&M Aggies in a tough non-conference match.
“Once again, we have one of the toughest schedules in the nation,” Minnis said. “The SEC is getting better each season and we also play some really good non-conference teams. Texas A&M is always strong, and we’ve added some dangerous teams to the schedule like Tulsa, SMU and Oregon this season.”
The LSU women’s tennis team will begin its spring season on Friday as the Lady Tigers travel to Williamsburg, Va., to compete in the William & Mary Invitational.
Intercollegiate Tennis Association Rankings
NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis
School Votes
1 Stanford (37 1st place votes) 1724
2 Florida (1) 1691
3 Duke 1670
4 Vanderbilt 1647
5 Georgia 1631
6 Tennessee 1624
7 Southern California 1594
8 Arizona State 1560
9 Northwestern 1495
10 Texas 1491
11 Fresno State 1468
12 Washington 1455
13 California 1454
14 Notre Dame 1432
15 Wake Forest 1428
16 UCLA 1397
17 North Carolina 1366
18 Oklahoma State 1319
19 Texas A&M 1304
20 Baylor 1281
21 South Carolina 1278
22 TCU 1250
23 Kentucky 1226
24 Pepperdine 1212
25 South Alabama 1204
26 Alabama 1177
27 LSU 1084
28 Washington State 1061
29 Illinois 1050
30 Florida International 1040