BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team fell to second-ranked Florida, 7-0, in a valiant effort to open up conference play at W.T. Robinson Tennis Stadium on Friday.
The Lady Tigers stayed close to the defending Southeastern Conference Champions in both singles and doubles within the matches, but in the end earned the loss. It was their first defeat at home this season and brought their overall record to 6-3(0-1 SEC). Florida improved to 5-0(1-0 SEC) with the win.
“Florida’s a very good team, and we came out and played hard,” head coach Tony Minnis said. “I just think we need to play with more confidence. Against a team like Florida, you have to play with more confidence to win. And I think that was the only thing we were lacking today.”
Though LSU failed to claim the doubles point to start the match, two Lady Tigers pairs kept their matches close.
On court one, the No. 48 pair of Lauren Seaman and Tiffany Tucker fell for the first time this season to the 14th-ranked tandem of Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes. Despite the 8-3 loss, they took each game down to the wire.
Amanda Mang and Staten Spencer also fought a tough battle on court two. They came to within 6-5 against the No. 7-ranked duo of Lolita Frangulyan and Whitney Benik before eventually falling, 8-5.
In singles, Spencer played her first match in the No. 2 position. In the end, 12th-ranked senior Zerene Reyes proved too much for the freshman, and she dropped the match, 1-6, 2-6. The loss was Spencer’s first of the year.
Marina Chiarelli also faced tough competition in No. 93 Alex Liles on court four. She fell in two sets, 3-6, 1-6. Tucker and Camila Caliari lost in straight sets as well on courts five and six, respectively.
Seaman faced the No. 47 player in the country in Boglarka Berecz on court two, keeping her at length for most of the first set before receiving the loss, 4-6. She came out on the winning end in the second set, handing Berecz a 6-4 loss.
Since the Gators had already clinched the win, the two played a third-set tiebreaker. Seaman could not keep her second-set momentum and lost the third, 5-10.
After dropping four close matches in a row, Mang battled 11th-ranked Magley looking for her first win over a ranked opponent. She was up 5-4, but a questionable call went Florida’s way and Magley crawled back to take the 7-5 first-set win. Mang could never recover and fell in the second set, 0-6.
“Tough calls and matches like this are just part of the game, and you just have to bounce back and be ready to play,” Minnis said.
The Lady Tigers will look to carry the intensity they played with against Florida into their Sunday contest with 26th-ranked South Carolina.
#2 Florida 7, #43 LSU 0
Singles competition:
1. #11 Jennifer Magley (UF) def. Amanda Mang (LSU) 7-5, 6-0
2. #12 Zerene Reyes (UF) def. Staten Spencer (LSU) 6-1, 6-2
3. #47 Boglarka Berecz (UF) def. Lauren Seaman (LSU) 6-4, 4-6, 10-5
4. #93 Alex Liles (UF) def. Marina Chiarelli (LSU) 6-3, 6-1
5. Nina Suvak (UF) def. Tiffany Tucker (LSU) 6-3, 6-4
6. Whitney Benik (UF) def. Camila Caliari (LSU) 6-4, 6-1
Doubles competition:
1. #14 Jennifer Magley/Zerene Reyes (UF) def. #48 Lauren Seaman/Tiffany Tucker (LSU) 8-3
2. #7 Lolita Frangulyan/Whitney Benik (UF) def. Amanda Mang/Staten Spencer (LSU) 8-5
3. Alex Liles/Nina Suvak (UF) def. Camila Caliari/Marina Chiarelli (LSU) 8-1
Match Notes:
Florida 5-0; National ranking #2
LSU 6-3; National ranking #43
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (4,6,2,1,5,3)
Clincher: D-1, S-2