BATON ROUGE, La. — The LSU women’s tennis heads to the campus of Georgia Tech for the ITA Kickoff Weekend beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday against DePaul.
LSU will face off against William and Mary or Georgia Tech Sunday in either the consolation final at 9 a.m. or the championship match at 1 p.m. The winner of the regional will advance to the NCAA National Team Indoor Championships Feb. 5-8 in Madison, Wisconsin.
“The ITA kickoff is always a very competitive weekend,” co-head coach Julia Sell said. “We are looking forward to getting to Atlanta and competing against a very good DePaul team.”
The Lady Tigers remain at No. 21 in the country after victories over Nicholls and Southern Saturday in the first match at the LSU Tennis Complex. LSU made quick work of the Colonels and Jaguars to start out 2-0 on the season.
Joana Vale Costa leads the way for LSU on court one. Vale Costa is ranked No. 23 in the ITA singles poll and won her singles match against Nicholls Milou Pietersz 6-0, 6-0. Vale Costa also teamed up with transfer Ryann Foster to earn a couple of 6-2 victories on court one.
Jessica Golovin is ranked No. 52 and the reigning Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Week. The New York, N.Y. native is coming off of a successful weekend against Nicholls and Southern. Golovin clinched the match for LSU against the Colonels on court three and clinched the clean sweep of the Jaguars on court one.
No. 93 Skylar Kuykendall will fill in the three spot for LSU in the singles lineup. The senior split her matches last weekend to open the season. Foster has provided a spark in singles. The experience transfer holds an 11-5 overall record.
DePaul is ranked No. 35 in the latest ITA team poll released Wednesday. The Blue Demons are coming off of a successful weekend at the Wildcat Duels where they earned wins on two singles courts against TCU, Alabama and Northwestern.
Led by head coach Mark Ardizzone, DePaul l is coming off one of the best seasons in school history. The team won the Big East Tournament for the second straight season and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. This year’s team features the No. 37 doubles team in the country in Yuliya Shupenia and Rebecaa Mitera.
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