BATON ROUGE – The LSU Lady Tiger tennis team lost another tough match on Saturday, falling to Oklahoma State 5-2 at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
With the loss, LSU fell to 1-5 on the spring season while Oklahoma State improved its record to 2-6.
The Lady Tigers return to action Sunday at 1 p.m. for a home match against Xavier (New Orleans). Admission is free to all home LSU women’s tennis matches. Live stats are provided for all 2011 home matches and select road matches and can be followed at www.LSUsports.net/livestats.
Doubles play again proved to be the deciding factor on Saturday afternoon as the Lady Tigers are now 0-5 when failing to clinch the doubles point.
LSU’s Ebie Wilson and Ariel Morton began doubles action by defeating Cowgirls Sarah Meghoufel and Leyla Simmons 8-2. Meanwhile the Lady Tiger ace combo of Whitney Wolf and Keri Frankenberger dropped to 0-4 on the season in doubles matches, losing to Nataliya Shatkovskaya and Kanyapat Narattana 8-3.
In the deciding match on Court 2, Oklahoma State’s Malika Rose and C.C. Sardinha came back from down 3-0 to knock off LSU’s Yvette Vlaar and Kaitlin Burns 8-5 and give the doubles point to the Cowgirls.
“We got up early again in doubles play, but we let them come back,” said LSU women’s tennis coach Tony Minnis. “We are going to have to make some changes in our doubles lineup. In singles, though, I thought our effort was good. We just have to bounce back tomorrow.”
Wolf, No. 60 in the ITA singles rankings, got LSU off to a great start in singles play, dispatching Cowgirl senior Sasha Belova 6-1, 6-0. The Lady Tigers could not build on the momentum, however, as the freshman Morton fell to Oklahoma State’s Narattana 6-3, 6-2 on Court 6.
The Cowgirls tallied their third point of the match when Rose improved her singles record to 7-0 by beating the Lady Tiger Vlaar 6-4, 6-2.
LSU refused to go down easily, though. Wilson extended her singles match winning streak to five and her singles set winning streak to 10 with a straight-set victory over Oklahoma State’s Meghoufel 6-3, 6-1.
Needing to win the final two matches to complete the comeback, LSU’s Frankenberger rallied to force a second-set tiebreaker after dropping the first set. With the match on the line, the Cowgirl sophomore Sardinha proved too much for Frankenberger, outlasting the Gainesville, Fla., native 7-4 in the tiebreaker to win the match 6-4, 7-6.
With the match already decided, LSU’s Burns fell to Shatskovaya of Oklahoma State in a third-set tiebreaker 4-6, 7-6, 1-0.
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Oklahoma State 5, LSU 2
February 26, 2011 at Baton Rouge, LA
W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium
Singles
1. #60 Whitney Wolf (LSU) def. Sasha Belova (OSU) 6-1, 6-0
2. Nataliya Shatkovskaya (OSU) def. Kaitlin Burns (LSU) 4-6, 7-6, 1-0
3. C.C. Sardinha (OSU) def. Keri Frankenberger (LSU) 6-4, 7-6
4. Ebie Wilson (LSU) def. Sarah Meghoufel (OSU) 6-3, 6-1
5. Malika Rose (OSU) def. Yvette Vlaar (LSU) 6-4, 6-2
6. Kanyapat Narattana (OSU) def. Ariel Morton (LSU) 6-3, 6-2
Doubles
1. N. Shatkovskaya/Kanyapat Narattana (OSU) def. #39 Whitney Wolf/Keri Frankenberger (LSU) 8-3
2. Malika Rose/C.C. Sardinha (OSU) def. Yvette Vlaar/Kaitlin Burns (LSU) 8-5
3. Ebie Wilson/Ariel Morton (LSU) def. Sarah Meghoufel/Leyla Simmons (OSU) 8-2
Order of Finish
Singles: 1,6,5,4,3,2
Doubles: 3,1,2
Team Records
Oklahoma State: 2-6 (0-0 in Big 12)
LSU: 1-5 (0-0 in SEC)