BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team will begin competition in its final home Southeastern Conference weekend of the 2003 season on Friday as the Lady Tigers host the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs at 2 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“This will be another tough, hard-fought weekend against two very good SEC teams,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “Mississippi State has been struggling over the last two years, but they have a solid young team this season that has been steadily gaining some maturity. It was good for us to beat Tulane last night and now we just need to keep the momentum up for this weekend.”
LSU, fresh off of its thrilling come-from-behind victory over 26th-ranked Tulane on Wednesday, heads into Friday’s SEC Western Division contest with an overall record of 9-10 on the season. The Lady Tigers own a 1-7 mark against conference opponents and are tied for the third position in the Western Division with Ole Miss.
The Lady Tigers will host the Ole Miss Lady Rebels at 1 p.m. on Sunday to compete their final SEC home weekend.
Mississippi State comes to Baton Rouge with a 6-11 overall record and a winless 0-8 mark against SEC rivals. The Lady Bulldogs are in the midst of a nine-match losing streak and have registered just one victory in its last 11 contests. Mississippi State’s most recent win came on Feb. 15, against Austin Peay, 6-0.
“They (Mississippi State) have been in a bit of a slump lately, but if you look at who they’ve played against then it makes more sense,” Minnis said. “Their last nine losses have all come against teams ranked in the top 25 and those are some really good teams. We have to make sure that we don’t just look at their record and think that they are not a quality tennis team.”
LSU holds a significant 18-6 lead in its all-time series rivalry with Mississippi State. Coach Minnis owns a 10-3 mark against the Lady Bulldogs and led his LSU team to a dominant 7-0 win over Mississippi State on the road in Starkville, Miss., a year ago.
The Lady Tigers will be led in Friday’s critical SEC matchup by its No. 1 doubles pair of Rocio Fantilli and Lauren Seaman. In its last week of play, the LSU tandem has knocked off both the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the nation as well as the ninth-ranked duo in the country. Fantilli and Seaman own a 14-10 overall record during the 2002-03 season.
The LSU women’s tennis team will attempt to win its second-straight match on Friday as the Lady Tigers host the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs at 2 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Admission is free to all LSU home tennis matches and refreshments will be provided by the Lady Tiger Tennis Athletic Foundation.