BATON ROUGE — For the third time this season the LSU women’s tennis team takes on an opponent ranked in the top three when they travel to Lexington to face third-ranked Kentucky at 3 p.m. Friday.
“This is a great opportunity we have to play the No. 3 team in the country and possibly come out with a win if we play with the same intensity we’ve practiced with,” head coach Tony Minnis said.
The Lady Tigers, who own a 7-5 overall record including 1-3 in the Southeastern Conference, had the past weekend off after falling to both Georgia and Tennessee the previous weekend.
Kentucky, on the other hand, is 15-3 and yet to lose a match in SEC play at a perfect 4-0. The Wildcats jumped into the top five after defeating both South Carolina and then-No. 2 Florida two weekends ago.
In fact, two of their losses came to Stanford and Northwestern, currently ranked first and second, respectively, right above the Wildcats. The other came to North Carolina, also ranked in the top 10.
Kentucky currently rides a nine-match winning streak.
“They are a very good team, obviously, or they wouldn’t be ranked in the top three,” Minnis commented.
The Wildcats lead the all-time series, 13-12, but the Lady Tigers came out ahead in the 2004 meeting. And according to Minnis, that was a huge upset win and a turning point for his team last season.
“That win was very big for us last year,” he said. “We have the opportunity to that again this year and really build off it.”
Senior Amanda Mang leads LSU into this weekend’s contests versus Kentucky and Vanderbilt. After a big win over Georgia’s No. 4-ranked Shadisha Robinson two weeks ago, she entered the ITA singles rankings at No. 99.
Junior Lauren Seaman, who suffered a back injury in the team’s upset win over South Carolina on March 6, is still not fully recovered and is questionable for this weekend’s matches. Seaman is the Lady Tigers’ No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles competitor.
Kentucky boasts three ranked singles competitors, including Aibika Kalsarieva coming in at No. 6. Kalsarieva also ranks sixth in doubles along with partner Sarah Foster. Joelle Schwenk and Kim Coventry also rank in the top 20 for the Wildcats in doubles at No. 17.
This is the first of two weekend SEC matches for LSU. They travel to Nashville, Tenn., for a Sunday match with Vanderbilt after meeting Kentucky.