BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team finishes out its final weekend of home matches as it welcomes Ole Miss, its first Southeastern Conference Western Division opponent, at 4 p.m. Friday.
“Our team has been playing really hard lately, but has just been coming up short,” head coach Tony Minnis said. “This match is an opportunity for us to keep up our level of intensity and pick up a win in the process.”
The Lady Tigers evened up their overall record at 7-7 with two losses last weekend at top-10-ranked Kentucky and Vanderbilt. After facing all SEC Eastern Division opponents, they own a 1-5 conference record and are tied for third with Alabama in the West.
LSU senior Amanda Mang ranks at No. 99 in the ITA poll and will look to earn the No. 1 singles victory to help propel her squad to victory. Junior Marina Chiarelli, fresh off an upset win over a ranked opponent, will also seek her second straight as well.
Junior Lauren Seaman, who has sat out the last four matches because of injury, is still questionable for the weekend.
Ole Miss boasts a 9-3 overall record and sits atop the Lady Tigers in the West at second with a 2-4 conference mark.
They are led by senior Chloe Carlotti, currently ranked 57th in the nation. Also finding her way in the singles rankings for the Lady Rebels is freshman Nika Koukhartchouk at No. 82.
Ole Miss also places a doubles team in the ITA’s Top 25. Carlotti and teammate Virgina Tomatis list at 24th nationally.
The Lady Rebels have lost their last two, while the Lady Tigers have dropped four straight.
“The team is definitely hungry for a win, but they know that we have played some quality opponents,” Minnis said. “We have played really tough against some really tough competition, and we just need to keep that up.”
The last time the two teams met in 2004, LSU left Oxford with a 4-3 win over the Lady Rebels.