LEXINGTON, Ky. — The LSU women’s tennis team continued its Southeastern Conference struggles by falling in its third straight match to third-ranked Kentucky, 7-0.
“We definitely fought hard, but Kentucky is a great team and they have been playing with a lot of confidence lately,” head coach Tony Minnis said.
The loss brings LSU’s overall record to 7-6 and drops them to 1-4 in the SEC. Kentucky, on the other hand, improved its record to 16-3 overall and kept the team perfect in the conference at a 5-0 mark.
The Wildcats began by claiming wins on all three doubles courts. LSU junior Lauren Seaman, still fighting a back injury, did not compete on court one, so Amanda Mang paired with Tiffany Tucker instead. They could not overcome the sixth-ranked duo of Sarah Foster and Aibika Kalsarieva, who finished first with an 8-2 win.
Camila Caliari and Daysi Espinal kept their match closer on court three, but eventually fell 8-6 to the pair of Erin Foster and Laura Maurer who clinched the doubles point for UK. Staten Spencer and Marina Chiarelli played a close match as well, and were even up 7-6 on the No. 17 tandem in the country. However, Kim Coventry and Joelle Schwenk swarmed back for the 9-7 win to give the Wildcats a doubles sweep.
“We had set point and so many opportunities to take advantage of, but we just didn’t execute when we needed to,” Minnis said.
Because of rain, the match was forced to indoor courts and thus only three singles matches could be played at a time.
Tucker, who had won both of her previous singles matches, could not make it a streak, falling first to Schwenk on court four, 6-2, 6-2.
Mang, currently ranked 99th in the nation, fought hard as well, but sixth-ranked Kalsarieva proved to be too much for her. After being slightly edged in the first set, 7-5, Mang fell 6-2 in the second on court one, giving UK its third point.
Despite another strong effort by Spencer on court two, No. 31-ranked Coventry took the 7-5, 6-3 win to clinch the match for the Wildcats.
Chiarelli was able to take No. 46 Sarah Foster to three sets on court three. She fell 6-2 in the first, but claimed the 7-5 win in the second set. But Foster regained control and won the third set, 6-3.
Caliari and Anastasiya Dubova each lost their matches as well on courts five and six, respectively.
The Lady Tigers stay on the road and will head to Nashville, Tenn., for a noon contest with eighth-ranked Vanderbilt on Sunday.
No. 3 Kentucky def. No. 41 LSU, 7-0
Doubles
#6 Kalsarieva/Foster (UK) def. Mang/Tucker (LSU) 8-2
#17 Coventry/Schwenk (UK) def. Chiarelli/Spencer (LSU) 9-7
Foster/Maurer (UK) def. Caliari/Espinal (LSU) 8-6
Singles
#6 Aibika Kalsarieva (UK) def. #99 Amanda Mang (LSU) 7-5, 6-2
#31 Kim Coventry (UK) def. Staten Spencer (LSU) 7-5, 6-3
#46 Sarah Foster (UK) def. Marina Chiarelli (LSU) 6-2, 5-7, 6-3
Joelle Schwenk (UK) def. Tiffany Tucker (LSU) 6-2, 6-2
Laura Maurer (UK) def. Camila Caliari (LSU) 6-1, 7-6(6)
Danielle Petrisko (UK) def. Anastasiya Dubova (LSU) 6-1, 6-0