COLUMBIA, S.C. — The LSU women’s tennis team showed some rust following a three-week hiatus on Friday, as the Lady Tigers were defeated by South Carolina, 6-1, in their conference opener on the road in Columbia, S.C.
“We were outplayed today,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “South Carolina has a very talented team and they just played better tennis than we did. I think that the three-week layoff affected us a little bit in that we hadn’t competed in a while. We just have to get ready to play Florida on Sunday.”
In the Lady Tigers’ first contest since Feb. 17, freshman Amanda Mang notched the team’s only point of the match with a 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-7 win over South Carolina’s Tamara Sutton on court No. 5. With the win, Mang earned her second-straight victory and upped her overall record to 15-11 on the season.
Tami Botts, LSU’s talented senior from Ashland, Ore., had her 12 match winning streak snapped on Friday. The Lady Tigers’ No. 2-singles player was defeated for the first time since Nov. 10, as she fell to Kathy Boyanovich in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3. Botts owns an impressive 17-4 record on the season.
With Friday’s SEC loss, the Lady Tigers dropped to 7-3 in dual-match play and fell to 0-1 against conference opponents. All three of LSU’s losses this season have come against team’s ranked in the top 35. The Lady Tigers were defeated by No. 19 Texas A&M, No. 23 South Carolina and No. 35 Florida State.
The LSU women’s tennis team faces another highly-ranked opponent on Sunday, as the Lady Tigers travel to Gainesville, Fla., for an SEC challenge against fifth-ranked Florida at 1 p.m.
#23 South Carolina 6, LSU 1
Doubles
1. Colosio/Fantilli (LSU) def. Radman/Boyanovich (USC) 9-7.
2. #32 Tan/Kenoyer (USC) def. Mang/McIlhaney (LSU) 9-8(7).
3. Markovski/Suzuki (USC) def. Botts/Budd (LSU) 8-1.
Singles
1. #88 Katarina Markovski (USC) def. Bruna Colosio (LSU) 6-4, 7-5.
2. Kathy Boyanovich (USC) def. Tami Botts (LSU) 6-1, 6-3.
3. Lynn-Yin Tan (USC) def. Rocio Fantilli (LSU) 6-2, 7-5.
4. Jodi Kenoyer (USC) def. Amy McIlhaney (LSU) 6-2, 6-1.
5. Amanda Mang (LSU) def. Tamara Sutton (USC) 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-7.
6. Ayako Suzuki (USC) def. Perri Budd (LSU) 6-2, 6-2.