BATON ROUGE – The LSU women’s tennis team concludes a four-match road swing when it travels to Dallas, Texas, to face No. 26 SMU on Sunday at 12 p.m. CST.
The Lady Tigers (1-3) look to build momentum following their first dual-match win of the season, outlasting Tulane 4-3 on Wednesday in a heart-stopping match. SMU (7-2) swept a home doubleheader with UL-Lafayette and Louisville last Sunday.
Amongst the Mustangs’ wins are victories over No. 33 Ohio State and No. 57 Oklahoma State, the Lady Tigers’ next opponent. Their two losses have come at the hands of No. 1 Stanford and No. 17 Ole Miss.
“SMU is the best team we have played this year,” LSU women’s tennis coach Tony Minnis said. “This is an opportunity for us to carry the momentum we gained from the Tulane match and hopefully get another win.”
Marta Lesniak, the No. 5 singles player in the country, powers the Mustangs’ charge. The Wroclaw, Poland, native holds a combined 24-5 record – including a 10-4 mark against nationally-ranked opponents – through the fall 2010 and spring 2011 seasons.
Lesniak pairs with Aleksandra Malyarchikova in doubles play. The junior combo is 4-3 on the spring season and defeated Louisville’s then No. 33-ranked duo of Julia Fellerhoff and Rebecca Shine their last time out.
LSU sophomores Kaitlin Burns and Ebie Wilson look to extend their three-match singles winning streaks against the Mustangs. Burns is coming off perhaps the biggest win of her career, outlasting Tulane’s Lindsay Dvorak in three sets on Wednesday to clinch the match for the Lady Tigers.
Meanwhile, Wilson has been in dominant fashion of late. The Mobile, Ala., native has yet to lose a set since her season-opening loss to Texas Tech’s Haley Fournier.
After two close losses at Texas A&M and Rice, the LSU doubles team of Wilson and freshman Ariel Morton finally broke through against Tulane to pick up their first doubles win of the season. They aim to bolster the Lady Tigers’ efforts to collect a second-consecutive doubles point against SMU.
LSU holds a 15-3 all-time series advantage over SMU. The two squads last met in 2009 when the Lady Tigers prevailed 6-1 in Baton Rouge.
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