BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team will attempt to win its third-consecutive match on Sunday as the Lady Tigers host the Ole Miss Lady Rebels at 1 p.m. in the final home contest of the season at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
“This is another big match for us,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “Ole Miss is a good team, they have a lot of talented players and it should be a really competitive match. We have been playing some of our best tennis lately and it will definitely be an advantage for us to be at home in front of our crowd.”
LSU heads into Sunday’s Southeastern Conference matchup with an overall record of 10-10 on the season and a 2-7 mark against conference opponents.
The Lady Tigers are in the midst of a two-match winning streak after defeating the 26th-ranked Tulane Green Wave, 4-3, on Wednesday and dropping Mississippi State, 5-2, on Friday.
Ole Miss enters the contest with a 6-12 overall record on the season and a 2-7 mark versus SEC rivals. On Friday, the Lady Rebels ended a two-match slide by sweeping Arkansas, 7-0, on the road in Fayetteville, Ark. Prior to that contest, Ole Miss fell to No. 6 Georgia, 5-2, and the seventh-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols, 6-1.
“The SEC is extremely tough again this season,” Minnis said. “Week in and week out, you know that you are going to face some of the best teams in the nation and it’s no different for us this week. Despite being 2-7 in the conference, Ole Miss is a very good team and we’re going to have to play some of our best tennis against them.”
The Lady Tigers will be led in Sunday’s critical SEC matchup by its No. 1 doubles pair of Rocio Fantilli and Lauren Seaman. During the 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 15-10 overall record during the 2002-03 season.
Ole Miss boasts the 25th-ranked singles player in the nation as well as a top-50 ranked doubles team. Mira Radu, who has been ranked as high as No. 8 this season, will lead the Lady Rebels at both the No. 1 singles and doubles positions. Radu and Virginia Tomatis form the 44th-ranked doubles tandem in the nation.
LSU trails Ole Miss in the all-time series, 17-9. The Lady Tigers have not defeated Ole Miss since 1991 and have lost their last 13 matches against the Lady Rebels. Last season, the higher-ranked Ole Miss team held off the streaky Lady Tigers in a thrilling 4-3 contest at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center in Oxford, Miss.
The LSU women’s tennis team will attempt to snap a 13-match losing streak against the Ole Miss Lady Rebels on Sunday as the Lady Tigers host their final home contest of the 2003 dual-match season at 1 p.m. at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.