BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team looks to rebound from a tough conference-opening weekend as it welcomes No. 27 Kentucky to W.T. Robinson Tennis Stadium on Friday at 4 p.m.
Head coach Tony Minnis will also be honored prior to the match for recording his 200th career victory earlier this season against Rice.
The Lady Tigers, currently 7-3 (0-2 Southeastern Conference), struggled in their SEC-openers, dropping 7-0 decisions at both Tennessee and Georgia. The Wildcats (8-6, 1-1 SEC), meanwhile, split their first two matches of SEC play with a 7-0 rout of Auburn and a 4-3 loss to Alabama at home.
“It’s good to be home, but we have to play better than we have in our last couple matches,” LSU head coach Tony Minnis said. “We have to step up as a team and play with better intensity.”
Kentucky, the 2005 SEC regular-season champions who finished ranked fourth in the country a year ago, started its season with a five-match winning streak before falling in three straight matches at the ITA National Indoors. Since then, the Wildcats have posted a 3-3 mark.
LSU faced then-No. 3 Kentucky in Lexington last season, dropping a 7-0 decision to the Wildcats. The Lady Tigers trail in the all-time series by one match, 13-12. They have won two of the past five meetings, both 4-3 victories, in 2002 and 2004.
“Kentucky is a very good team, but it’s a tremendous opportunity for us,” Minnis said. “We just have to play with more pride and play better as a team.”
This match marks the first of two with SEC opponents this weekend. Twelfth-ranked Vanderbilt will also make the trip to Baton Rouge on Sunday to face the Lady Tigers.
Admission to LSU tennis events is free, and fans are welcome to come watch the Lady Tigers in action and eat free pizza that will be given away at match time Friday.