KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The LSU women’s tennis team will begin play in the 2003 Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday as the Lady Tigers challenge the Ole Miss Lady Rebels in the first round of action at 1 p.m. (CDT) in Knoxville, Tenn.
“We’re playing with a lot of positive momentum right now,” said LSU head coach Tony Minnis. “We’ve won four of our last five matches and we’ve been playing pretty well. These freshmen have really stepped up their game and have started to come around for us late in the season. They are playing some solid tennis right now.”
LSU heads into the four-day competition as the eighth-seeded team in the tournament after finishing the regular season with a 12-11 overall record and a 4-7 mark in the SEC. The Lady Tigers finished in sole possession of second place in the Western Division and trailed only the 6-5 Alabama Crimson Tide.
On Saturday, LSU posted its third-consecutive SEC victory as the Lady Tigers toppled Arkansas, 6-1, on the road in Fayetteville, Ark.
The win handed Arkansas its second straight 0-11 season in the conference and helped LSU solidify the No. 8 seed in the SEC Tournament. Prior to the Arkansas match, the Lady Tigers knocked off both Mississippi State, 5-2, and Ole Miss, 4-3, at home at the W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium.
Ole Miss enters Thursday’s first-round matchup with an overall record of 7-13 on the season and a 3-8 mark against conference opponents.
The Lady Rebels come in as the ninth-seeded team in the tournament with conference wins against Auburn, 4-3, Arkansas, 6-1, and the Mississippi State Bulldogs, 6-1. Ole Miss won the SEC Tournament during the 1999 season when it was held in Baton Rouge.
“I think that our team is really starting to understand what it takes to win,” Minnis said. “They found out what they have to do to be competitive in this conference as well as against the type schedule that we play. I think that we’ve shown significant improvement since the beginning of the year. We just need to keep that going.”
LSU defeated Ole Miss by a score of 4-3 on April 6. Despite the win, Ole Miss continues to lead the all-time series between the two SEC Western Division rivals by a count of 17-10.
The last time that the Lady Tigers met Ole Miss at a neutral site was in the opening round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament. The Lady Rebels won the contest, 4-1, on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif.
In what is supposed to be the closest match of the SEC Tournament’s first round of action, the eighth-seeded LSU Lady Tigers will face the ninth-seeded Ole Miss Lady Rebels at 1 p.m. (CDT) in Knoxville, Tenn.
LSU Women’s Tennis
SEC Tournament History
Tournament Record: 6-13
2002
First Round: (7) Kentucky def. (10) LSU, 4-1
2001
First Round: (10) Mississippi State def. (7) LSU, 4-1
2000
First Round: (10) LSU def. (7) Arkansas, 5-2
Quarterfinal: (2) Florida def. (10) LSU, 5-1
1999
First Round: (7) Arkansas def. (10) LSU, 5-2
1998
First Round: (8) Kentucky def. (9) LSU, 5-2
1997
First Round: (5) LSU def. (12) Auburn, 6-0
Quarterfinal: (4) Tennessee def. (5) LSU, 5-4
1996
First Round: (8) Arkansas def. (9) LSU, 6-3
1995
First Round: (6) LSU def. (11) Mississippi State, 5-0
Quarterfinal: (6) LSU def. (3) Tennessee, 5-3
Semifinal: (2) Georgia def. (6) LSU, 5-0
1994
First Round: (6) South Carolina def. (11) LSU, 5-2
1993
First Round: (9) Kentucky def. (8) LSU, 5-4
1992
First Round: (8) LSU def. (9) Vanderbilt, 5-0
Quarterfinal: (1) Florida def. (8) LSU, 5-1
1991
Quarterfinal: (3) LSU def. (6) Alabama, 5-1
Semifinal: (2) Georgia def. (3) LSU, 6-0
1990
Quarterfinal: (4) Tennessee def. (5) LSU, 5-2