COLLEGE PARK, Md. — The LSU women’s tennis team continued its stellar opening weekend in day two of the Maryland Invitational, sending three singles players and one doubles duo to the finals in their respective flights.
“We started off slow in doubles, but we fought back hard,” LSU head coach Tony Minnis said. “Overall, we are pretty happy, but we still have work to do.”
In the “C” flight singles, Lady Tigers Ashley Murdock and Tiffany Tucker remained undefeated as they both were victorious in their semifinals matches. Murdock knocked off Christine Alford of Yale, 3-6, 6-0, 6-1, and Tucker defeated Sarah Lotto of Penn State, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6. Murdock and Tucker will now face one another in the “C” flight singles final Sunday.
Murdock and Tucker are headed to the “B” flight doubles finals after dropping Yale’s Lilian Nguyen and Sarah Lederhandler, 8-3.
For the second straight day, freshman Hannah Robinson notched a two-set victory by defeating Penn State’s Dorothy Dohanics in the “B” flight singles semifinals, 6-1, 6-2. The Monroe native will battle for the “B” flight singles title Sunday.
Robinson and partner Mykala Hedberg held their own in the “A” flight semifinals against Maryland’s Maggie MacKeever and Michal Amir, but lost the match in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (1). Eleanor Peters of Maryland defeated Hedberg in her singles match, 6-3, 6-3.
Nicole Kantor picked up her first singles win as a Lady Tiger after she defeated West Virginia’s Stacey Percival, 6-2, 6-4. She will play in the consolation finals against Maryland’s MacKeever on Sunday. Kantor’s play did not go as well in doubles as she and partner Staten Spencer fell to No. 35-ranked Marianne Baker and Peters of Maryland, 8-1. They will now face another Lady Tiger tandem, Hedberg and Robinson, on Sunday.
Yale’s Lederhandler defeated Spencer in the “B” flight consolation bracket, 6-1, 6-4.
Freshman Sloane Mathis won her first set against West Virginia’s Colleen Speaker, but could not come out on top as she fell in three sets, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0.
“The freshmen did exactly what we asked of them,” Minnis commented. “They played with the competitiveness and desire that we already knew they had.”
Sunday is the final day of competition and will begin at 9 a.m.
Singles
Flight A
Semifinals
Eleanor Peters (MD) def. Mykala Hedberg (LSU), 6-3, 6-3
Consolation
Nicole Kantor (LSU) def. Stacey Percival (WV), 6-3, 6-0
Flight B
Semifinals
Hannah Robinson (LSU) def. Dorothy Dohanics (PSU), 6-2, 6-2
Consolation
Sarah Lederhandler (Yale) def. Staten Spencer (LSU), 6-1, 6-4
Flight C
Semifinals
Tiffany Tucker (LSU) def. Sarah Lotto (PSU), 6-0, 7-5
Ashley Murdock (LSU) def. Christine Alford (Yale), 6-0, 4-6, 6-3
Flight D
Consolation
Colleen Speaker (WVU) def. Sloane Mathis (LSU), 5-7, 6-0, 6-1
Doubles
Flight A
Semifinals
MacKeever/Amir (MD) def. Hedberg/Robinson (LSU), 9-8 (1)
#35 Peters/Baker (MD) def. Kantor/Spencer (LSU), 8-1
Flight B
Semifinals
Tucker/Murdock (LSU) def. Nguyen/Lederhandler (Yale), 8-3