BATON ROUGE — After winning the Southeastern Conference Western Division Championship, the LSU women’s tennis team received the No. 7 seed in this year’s tournament in the draw released by the league office on Sunday.
The Lady Tigers ended the season with a 5-6 conference mark, which tied with the Auburn Tigers in the SEC Western Division. The tiebreaker is decided by the head-to-head match between the two teams in which LSU defeated Auburn, 4-3.
“I think it is very commendable that this team came forward to win the SEC West considering the fact that we started with practically a brand new team,” LSU head coach Tony Minnis said. “It is exciting to have, not only for this year, but years to come to have freshman and sophomores as our top five players.”
The Lady Tigers, who completed the regular season with a 15-7 overall record, are set to face No. 10-seeded Ole Miss (5-17, 1-10 SEC) in a 9 a.m. CT match-up at Kentucky’s Boone Tennis Complex.
Georgia received the tournament’s No. 1 overall seed with Florida as the No. 2 seed. A win versus Ole Miss would put the Lady Tigers up against the Gators.
Other teams receiving first-round byes are No. 3 Vanderbilt and No. 4 South Carolina.
In the top half of the bracket, Arkansas, the No. 9 seed, will match up against 8th-seeded Auburn in the opening round as will No. 5 Tennessee and No. 12 Alabama.
In LSU’s half of the bracket, the other first round match is between No. 6 Kentucky and No. 11 Mississippi State.
SEC Women’s Tennis Tournament
Lexington, Ky.
Thursday, April 19
Match 1 #11 Mississippi State vs. #6 Kentucky 9 am CT
Match 2: #10 Ole Miss vs. #7 LSU 9 am CT
Match 3: #12 Alabama vs. #5 Tennessee noon CT
Match 4: #9 Arkansas vs. #8 Auburn noon CT
Friday, April 20
Match 5: Match 1 winner vs. #3 Vanderbilt 9 am CT
Match 6: Match 2 winner vs. #2 Florida 9 am CT
Match 7: Match 3 winner vs. #4 South Carolina noon CT
Match 8: Match 4 winner vs. #1 Georgia noon CT
Saturday, April 21
Match 9: Match 5 winner vs. Match 6 winner 9 am CT
Match 10: Match 7 winner vs. Match 8 winner noon CT
Sunday, April 22
Championship Match 9 winner v.s Match 10 winner noon CT