BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team will begin play in its eighth-consecutive NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament on Saturday, as the Lady Tigers will take on the Furman Lady Paladins in the first round at 9 a.m. in Chapel Hill, N.C.
“I feel very fortunate that we started playing a lot better as the year went on,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We overcame a lot of adversity and now it’s tournament time. There’s a clean slate and we just have to make sure that we’re focused and ready to do the things that we are capable of doing.”
LSU heads into the NCAA Tournament with an overall record of 12-12 on the season after facing one of the nation’s toughest schedules. The Lady Tigers played eight opponents ranked in the top 25 this season and earned crucial wins over two NCAA Tournament teams. LSU knocked off 17th-ranked Kentucky and Southern in dual-match play.
The Lady Paladins of Furman enter Saturday’s first-round contest with a 22-3 overall record and as the 2002 Southern Conference champions. Furman ended the regular season with a perfect 9-0 conference mark and has notched key wins against Clemson, North Carolina State, New Mexico and South Florida. The Lady Paladins have never won an NCAA Tournament match.
“I think that we have a very good draw from a standpoint that I think that we have shots to do something special,” Minnis said. “But every team in the NCAA Tournament is very tough and both Furman and North Carolina have had great seasons. It’s going to be a war and we have to be ready to play some good tennis.”
The seventh-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels are hosting the four-team regional and will play Loyola (Md.) in first-round action at the Cone-Kenfield Tennis Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.
The Tar Heels come into the tournament as the sixth-seeded team and with an impressive 22-4 overall record, while Loyola boasts a top-notch 23-3 dual-match record and earned an automatic bid by winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference title for the fourth-straight season. This is also North Carolina’s fourth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, but its first time serving as a host site.
The LSU women’s tennis team will begin its quest for a second trip to the Sweet 16 in three seasons on Saturday, May 11, as the Lady Tigers challenge the Furman Lady Paladins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Chapel Hill, N.C. at 9 a.m. (Central time).