BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team faces two in-state foes in the next two days as Louisiana-Lafayette travels to Baton Rouge Tuesday at 3 p.m. and the Lady Tigers head to New Orleans to battle Tulane on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
“These are big matches for us,” head coach Tony Minnis said. “We just need to come out and play with the same intensity we’ve shown the last few matches and we should be successful.”
The Lady Tigers played ULL once already this season, resulting in a 7-0 win for LSU. They are also a perfect 20-0 against ULL all-time.
The Ragin Cajuns are 7-7 overall this year and have won four straight.
“We beat them earlier in the year, but ULL is coming off four straight wins and has really picked its program up,” Minnis said.
LSU will be looking for its fourth straight win as well against ULL. They have won three straight matches — all on the road — including two Southeastern Conference contests at Auburn and Alabama.
The wins brought their overall record to 10-9 (3-7 SEC) for the season.
The Lady Tigers next travel to New Orleans to play Tulane on Wednesday. The Wave are currently ranked 19th with a 15-5 record.
They have two players ranked in singles in the top 100 and one doubles pair in the top 50. Jenny Kuhn ranks at No. 46 and Nancy Kockott comes in at 97th. In doubles, sisters Maria and Darya Ivanov list at 46th.
“Tulane is a very good team as well,” Minnis commented. “They have a lot of experienced players who are great competitors. It will be a tough atmosphere, but we really look forward to the competition.”
Tulane defeated LSU last year in Baton Rouge, 5-2, but LSU holds a 28-3 all-time advantage.
“These girls have faced a lot of adversity this season, and are persevering extremely well,” Minnis said. “We hope we can take advantage of our competitiveness and continue to climb the ranks.”
These matches are the final non-conference contests for the Lady Tigers, who close out the regular season Saturday at Arkansas.