BATON ROUGE — Following a competitive weekend at the ITA Kick-Off in Los Angeles, Calif., the LSU women’s tennis team will play in their home opener Friday at 3 p.m. CST at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium against the 73rd-ranked SMU Mustangs.
LSU brings a 3-1 record to the courts with wins over three nationally ranked opponents and one loss to No. 3 UCLA.
“SMU will be a very challenging match. One of the things we tried to do this season was load up our schedule with very tough teams. SMU is no different,” said head coach Tony Minnis.
SMU (6-0) is undefeated on the season, led by senior Natalia Bubien who cruised past all of her opponents in singles play with a season record of 3-0. Bubien and junior Pavi Francis lead the team in doubles by holding a record of 4-0.
The Lady Tigers moved up in the top 25 to No. 23 after defeating No. 63 DePaul in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend. Fifth-ranked Megan Falcon improved her record to 16-4 as she leads the team in singles play. Seventeenth-ranked Falcon and Mykala Hedberg defeated DePaul’s No. 36 tandem of Dunja Antunovic and Kirsten Grambell, increasing their record to 15-3.
Freshman Whitney Wolf clinched her first career victory over a ranked opponent against UCLA when she defeated No. 63 Maya Johansson.
The teams’ last meeting was in 2004, where SMU defeated the Lady Tigers, 5-2. The Lady Tigers look to add to their series lead of 14-3 versus the Mustangs.