BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team travels to Fayetteville, Ark., for a 1 p.m. Saturday match with the Lady’Backs to conclude the regular season.
“Arkansas is a much-improved team from last year, and we have some tough competition ahead,” head coach Tony Minnis said. “But we’re ready. We just have to come out with intensity from the start and play the way we’re capable of.”
The Lady Tigers hold an 11-10 record (3-7 Southeastern Conference) heading into the contest. They had won four straight before falling to in-state rival Tulane on Wednesday. However, they have a chance to finish out the SEC with three straight wins by defeating Arkansas.
LSU is third in the Western Division standings behind Mississippi State and Ole Miss. Arkansas, at 11-9 (1-9 SEC) is fifth in the West. The Lady’Backs earned their first conference win of the year over Auburn last weekend.
Arkansas places one singles competitor in the top 100. Vlatka Jovanovic lists at No. 78.
“With the type of schedule we play, we have to be ready to fight every match no matter if we’re playing a top-10 team or a top-200 team,” Minnis commented. “There are so many good teams in tennis that you really can’t look past anyone, and we have to give Arkansas the respect they deserve.”
The Lady Tigers will look to start the match with the doubles win, as they are 10-1 in matches when winning doubles. They have swept the doubles point in four of their last five matches.
They also look to the top half of the singles lineup to bounce back from tough three-set losses in the team’s last conference match at Alabama and the bottom half to continue their winning ways.
Marina Chiarelli has won her last four conference matches, Tiffany Tucker her last five, and Camila Caliari five straight SEC contests.
Minnis hopes his team can pick up a win at Arkansas and carry over momentum into the SEC Tournament the following week.
“If we win at Arkansas, we will have won five of our last six mathches,” Minnis explained. “I think that would be great for our team to head into the SEC Tournament with that level of confidence.”