BATON ROUGE — In the final tuneup before the SEC slate begins, the LSU women’s tennis team will travel to Tallahassee to take on No. 20 Florida State (7-1) at the Scott Speicher Tennis Center at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday.
The Lady Tigers (5-2) enter the match against the Seminoles after a six day layoff. The last time LSU played was Feb. 16 when the Lady Tigers dominated New Mexico, 6-1, and Grambling, 7-0, in a doubleheader.
Florida State is coming off its first loss of the season, a 6-1 setback to No. 5 Florida in Gainesville on Thursday.
“Florida State is a very good team,” LSU head coach Tony Minnis said. “This is a nice out of conference rivalry for us. We just need to come out and play well because this will be a hard-fought match. It should get us ready for the SEC schedule.”
Through seven matches LSU is led in singles by 15th-ranked Megan Falcon, who is riding a nine-match win streak, currently 14-2 on the season and is undefeated in dual play at 6-0.
In doubles, LSU features the 56th-ranked duo of Mykala Hedberg and Staten Spencer, who have a 9-3 record and are 4-1 in dual matches.
Florida State freshman, Katie Rybakova, enters the match ranked No. 46, and she holds a 16-6 record on the season. Like LSU, the Seminoles feature one ranked doubles team as junior Ania Rynarzewska and Rybakova check in at No. 40 in the latest ITA rankings.
The series history has been back and forth between the two teams as LSU holds an 8-7 lead following last season’s 5-2 loss to the Seminoles in Baton Rouge. Before last season, the Lady Tigers had won the previous two matches against Florida State in 2004 (4-3) and 2006 (5-2).