BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team gears up again after a week off for weekend contests against non-conference opponents Tulsa and Florida State.
The Lady Tigers take on Tulsa on Saturday at 1 p.m. and then face off against Florida State at noon Sunday. Both opponents rank in the top 100, with Tulsa coming in at No. 61 and Florida State at No. 34.
“These are two teams that both made the NCAA Tournament last year,” head coach Tony Minnis said. “Tulsa has some good wins, and Florida State is coming off an upset of Alabama last week. They’re going to be some tough matches for us.”
These are LSU’s first matches since a road trip to Houston where they split matches with Rice and Houston. The Lady Tigers lost to Rice, 4-3, but then bounced back to defeat Houston, 4-3.
“Hopefully our team will learn from the experience we had in Houston and get better from it,” Minnis said. “We need to just fight hard and play with the same fire and intensity.”
At 5-3, Tulsa is coming off an impressive upset of No. 24 Oklahoma on Wednesday. The Golden Hurricane are led by No. 54-ranked junior Daniela Muscolino, who is undefeated in dual singles play at 6-0.
Florida State holds an even 2-2 record, but they are coming off an upset of then-No. 33 Alabama last week. Despite a 6-1 loss Wednesday to Florida, the second-ranked team in the country, they pulled off two big upsets over the No. 3 doubles tandem in the nation and the No. 11 singles player.
Mihaela Moldovan leads the Lady Seminoles, ranking at No. 42 and holding a 3-1 dual singles record.
The Lady Tigers defeated both of these teams in their meetings last year, but they are not looking past them this year.
Senior Amanda Mang looks to pick up her first win this season against a ranked opponent, and freshman Staten Spencer hopes to continue her unblemished dual singles record. Spencer is a perfect 6-0 in singles competition this dual season.
LSU also hopes to keep up its winning streak in doubles, coming in at a perfect 5-0 to this weekend’s matches. Lauren Seaman and Tiffany Tucker are yet to lose a match in the No. 1 doubles position.
These matches plus one more at Texas A&M next weekend are LSU’s final tune-up before beginning Southeastern Conference play.