AUBURN, Ala. — The LSU women’s tennis team continues play in its opening Southeastern Conference weekend of the season on Sunday as the Lady Tigers challenge the defending Western Division champion Auburn at noon at the Luther Young Tennis Complex.
“Auburn’s a good team and this is going to be a very competitive match,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We didn’t play our best tennis against Alabama on Friday and I think that now our team is ready to go out and prove that we can win tough matches on the road.”
LSU (6-4, 0-1 SEC) owns a 1-2 record on the road this season and is coming off of a defeat in its conference opener against Alabama, 7-0, on Friday.
After beating Houston, 7-0, on Feb. 10, the Lady Tigers have lost their last two road contests against Texas A&M, 5-2, and Alabama. Last season, LSU finished with a 3-8 mark in matches away from Baton Rouge.
Auburn (8-1, 1-0) heads into Sunday’s SEC Western Division contest in the midst of a five-match winning streak after knocking off Arkansas, 6-1, in its conference opener on Friday. Since Feb. 9, the Auburn Lady Tigers have reeled off consecutive wins against Southern, 7-0, Alabama-Birmingham, 5-2, Furman, 6-1, Troy State, 7-0, and Arkansas.
“They (Auburn) are coming in to this match with a full head of steam,” Minnis said. “They handily defeated a much-improved Arkansas team on Friday and they typically play very well at home, but I think that we have an opportunity to get back in the groove and make something happen.”
In last season’s annual meeting, the teams played one of the SEC’s most thrilling matches of the year.
In a vital Western Division contest, the Lady Tigers led the match by a slim margin of 3-2 while two of the singles courts were simultaneously in the midst of a third-set tiebreaker. Auburn’s Carolina Maurer and LSU’s Rocio Fantilli were battling on court No. 3, while LSU’s Tami Botts and Auburn’s Petra Bercik were competing on court No. 2.
Maurer rallied from a one-set deficit to defeat LSU’s Fantilli, 2-6, 7-6(4), 7-6(4), in the No. 3 singles match and kept Auburn’s hope alive by tying the score at 3-3. In the clinching match of the day, Auburn’s Bercik staved off numerous match points against Botts and held on to notch a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5) victory on court No. 2 to secure the win.
Despite last season’s heartbreaking defeat, LSU still owns a decisive 17-8 lead in the all-time series.
The LSU women’s tennis team will attempt to break even in SEC play on Sunday as the Lady Tigers challenge Auburn at noon at the Luther Young Tennis Complex in Auburn, Ala.