TULSA, Okla. — The LSU women’s tennis team opened up the spring dual season in good form by knocking off Tulsa, 5-2 at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center Sunday.
The Lady Tigers (1-0) opened the day by winning two out of three doubles matches to earn the doubles point. LSU’s 30th-ranked duo of Mykala Hedberg and Staten Spencer finished first as they defeated Tulsa’s Thalia Diaz-Barriga and Marta Marcinkowska, 8-3 on court two. LSU clinched the doubles point on court one when Megan Falcon and Tiffany Tucker knocked off Rebecca Row and Carla Zabaleta, 8-3. The match on court three was hotly contested as Tulsa’s Alexandra Kichoutkin and Jie Zeng beat LSU’s Hannah Robinson and Anastasiya Dubova, 8-6.
“Tulsa played really competitively,” LSU head coach Tony Minnis said. “That was a hard-fought match. I was proud of a lot of our players getting down early and being able to fight back to win. Tulsa is a very solid team, and this was a big win for us.”
In singles play, Robinson was first to finish, beating Agostina Santoro in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2. Tulsa (5-1) picked up its first point of the match on court two when Kichoutkin defeated Hedberg, 6-2, 6-4. The Lady Tigers answered right back on court one when eighth-ranked Falcon knocked off Diaz-Barriga in three sets, 6-0, 6-7 (7-9), 6-0.
Tucker, who pushed her win streak to eight matches, clinched the victory on court three by beating Zabaleta, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. After the Lady Tigers had sealed the win, Tulsa picked up one more point on court four as Row defeated Nicole Kantor in three sets, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. Spencer closed out the match on court six against Zeng in a super tiebreaker, 0-6, 6-3, (10-3).
LSU will continue its road swing to open the season by traveling to California next week to take on Long Beach State on Feb. 2, followed by Pepperdine on Feb. 4 and UC-Irvine on Feb. 5.
#33 LSU 5, #46 Tulsa 2
January 27, 2008 at Tulsa, Okla.
Singles competition:
1. #8 Megan Falcon (LSU) def. Thalia Diaz-Barriga (TULSA) 6-0, 6-7 (7-9), 6-0
2. Alexandra Kichoutkin (TULSA) def. Mykala Hedberg (LSU) 6-2, 6-4
3. Tiffany Tucker (LSU) def. Carla Zabaleta (TULSA) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3
4. Rebecca Row (TULSA) def. Nicole Kantor (LSU) 6-4, 1-6, 7-5
5. Hannah Robinson (LSU) def. Agostina Santoro (TULSA) 6-1, 6-2
6. Staten Spencer (LSU) def. Jie Zeng (TULSA) 0-6, 6-3, (10-3)
Doubles competition:
1. Megan Falcon/Tiffany Tucker (LSU) def. Rebecca Row/Carla Zabaleta (TULSA) 8-3
2. #30 Mykala Hedberg/Staten Spencer (LSU) def. Thalia Diaz-Barriga/Marta Marcinkowska (TULSA) 8-3
3. Alexandra Kichoutkin/Jie Zeng (TULSA) def. Hannah Robinson/Anastasiya Dubova (LSU) 8-6
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (2, 1, 3); Singles (5, 2, 1, 3, 4, 6)
# – denotes national ranking