BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team couldn’t salvage a weekend split, as the Lady Tigers fell to 12th-ranked Vanderbilt, 7-0, on Sunday at W.T. Robinson Tennis Stadium.
The Lady Tigers dropped to 7-5 with the loss, still yet to record a Southeastern Conference win with an 0-4 mark.
“We’ve played some really good teams, but it’s been a very tough year,” LSU head coach Tony Minnis said. “We’re really banged up right now, but hopefully we can take some time to get healthy and try to turn things around for the rest of the season.”
Vanderbilt moved to 12-2 with the win, remaining a perfect 4-0 in SEC play. It was also the Commodores’ ninth straight win over the Lady Tigers.
For the second match of the weekend, the Lady Tigers fell just short of the doubles point. It came down to the court three match between Camila Caliari and Daysi Espinal and Liberty Sveche and Courtney Ulery.
The LSU duo had fallen behind 4-2, but came back to tie it 4-all. They took a 5-4 advantage before the Commodores pair evened it back at 5-all. The VU pair went up 6-5 and never relinquished the lead, clinching the doubles point with an 8-6 victory.
Vanderbilt’s other doubles win came on court one, as Amanda Taylor and Maggie Yahner ousted Mykala Hedberg and Tiffany Tucker, 8-0. LSU claimed the court two victory, however. Marina Chiarelli and Anastasiya Dubova ousted Taka Bertrand and Amanda Fish, 8-4.
“I was really proud of the effort on courts two and three, but we still came up short,” Minnis said. “It’s tough to keep losing close matches they way we have been doing.”
The Commodores controlled the pace early of most of the singles matches as well. Their second point came when Caliari had do withdraw from injury to Caroline Ferrell on court five.
Espinal then succumbed to Sveke on court six, 6-1, 6-1. Vanderbilt clinched the match with a straight-sets win by 23rd-ranked Fish on court one over Hedberg, 6-1, 6-3.
Tucker also dropped a straight-sets match on court four to Ulery, 6-2, 6-4, to put the Commodores ahead, 5-0.
Chiarelli had won her first set on court two over 40th-ranked Bertrand, 6-3, but then fell in the second by the same margin. The two played a third-set super-tiebreaker, which Bertrand grabbed, 10-6.
Dubova closed out competition with a two-set loss to Taylor, 6-2, 7-5. She had jumped ahead 5-4 in the second set, but Taylor stormed back to take the 7-5 victory and complete the sweep for the Commodores.
The Lady Tigers take a much-needed break from conference action and will make up a previously rained out match to Prairie View A&M on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
MATCH RESULTS
#12 Vanderbilt 7, #41 LSU 0
Singles competition
1. #23 Amanda Fish (VU) def. Mykala Hedberg (LSU) 6-1, 6-3
2. #40 Taka Bertrand (VU) def. Marina Chiarelli (LSU) 3-6, 6-3, 10-6
3. Amanda Taylor (VU) def. Anastasiya Dubova (LSU) 6-2, 7-5
4. Courtney Ulery (VU) def. Tiffany Tucker (LSU) 6-2, 6-4
5. #123 Caroline Ferrell (VU) def. Camila Caliari (LSU) 6-1, 1-0, retired
6. Liberty Sveke (VU) def. Daysi Espinal (LSU) 6-1, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Amanda Taylor/Maggie Yahner (VU) def. Mykala Hedberg/Tiffany Tucker (LSU) 8-0
2. Marina Chiarelli/Anastasiya Dubova (LSU) def. Taka Bertrand/Amanda Fish (VU) 8-4
3. Courtney Ulery/Liberty Sveke (VU) def. Camila Caliari/Daysi Espinal (LSU) 8-6
Match Notes:
Vanderbilt 12-2 (4-0 SEC); National ranking #12
LSU 7-5 (0-4 SEC); National ranking #41
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (5,6,1,4,2,3)