BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team defeated 30th-ranked University of Tulsa, 6-1, at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Tennis Stadium on Friday.
“I was really impressed with our performance. The doubles were a little bit shaky. We tried a couple of new teams,” LSU head coach Tony Minnis said. “In singles, we came out and jumped on a solid team. I thought we played very solid up and down our lineup.”
The Lady Tigers returned to their winning ways in doubles competition as they grabbed the point winning matches on courts one and three. LSU was forced to retire the match on court two because sophomore Staten Spencer re-injured her leg during play.
On court one, sophomores Megan Falcon and Mykala Hedberg defeated the Hurricane’s Carla Zabaleta and Kindsay Grimes, 8-1.
On court three, juniors Anastasiya Dubova and Tiffany Tucker battled Thalia Diez-Barriga and Jie Zeng. They secured the doubles point for LSU winning the match 8-5.
In singles play, the Lady Tigers won five of the six matches to secure the win and improve their overall record to 8-5.
No. 2-ranked Falcon blanked her opponent Kindsay Grimes as she finished her match on court one in less than 45 minutes. Falcon owns a 23-2 career record, 13-0 in dual play.
Dubova finished not far behind as she gave up only one game on court six defeating the Hurricane’s Jenn Webster, 6-0, 6-1.
Hedberg clinched the win for LSU on court two as she defeated Tulsa’s Santie Delport in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Hedberg owns an 8-5 dual play record.
Robinson grabbed the fifth match point for the Lady Tigers as she downed Agostina Santoro on court four, 6-1, 6-4. She improved her career record to 17-7, 11-1 in dual play.
The Hurricanes only match point came on court three as freshman Nicole Kantor and Thalia Diaz-Barriga split sets, and then Kantor was forced to retire due to a back injury.
On court six, Tucker won the first set 6-2. She then lost a hard fought tiebreaker in the second set forcing a third to be played. She came back to dominate the third set, 6-1, and grab the sixth match point for the Lady Tigers.
“We need a break. It has been a very long semester, and this has been the toughest part of our schedule so we just need a little bit of a break,” Minnis said.
This much needed break will come as the Lady Tiger’s take the weekend off from contests and prepare to welcome two SEC teams to the “Dub” next weekend. They will host No. 34 South Carolina on Friday, March 23rd, at 3 p.m. followed by No. 4 Florida on Sunday, March 25th, at Noon.
Tulsa vs. LSU
#40 LSU 6, #30 Tulsa 1
Singles competition
1. Megan Falcon (LSU) def. Kindsay Grimes (TULSA) 6-0, 6-0
2. Mykala Hedberg (LSU) def. Santie Delport (TULSA) 6-4, 6-4
3. Thalia Diaz-Barriga (TULSA) def. Nicole Kantor (LSU) 2-6, 6-4, retired
4. Hannah Robinson (LSU) def. Agostina Santoro (TULSA) 6-1, 6-4
5. Tiffany Tucker (LSU) def. Marta Marcinkowska (TULSA) 6-2, 6-7 (8-6), 6-1
6. Anastasiya Dubova (LSU) def. Jenn Webster (TULSA) 6-0, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. Megan Falcon/Mykala Hedberg (LSU) def. Thalia Diaz-Barriga/Jie Zeng (TULSA) 8-1
2. Santie Delport/Marta Marcinkowska (TULSA) def. Hannah Robinson/Staten Spencer (LSU) 7-6, retired
3. Anastasiya Dubova/Tiffany Tucker (LSU) def. Kindsay Grimes/Carla Zabaleta (TULSA) 8-5
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (1,6,2,4,3,5)