BATON ROUGE – After a week on the road, the 15th-ranked LSU women’s tennis team (14-6, 3-3 SEC) return home to face No. 26 Arkansas (14-6, 3-2 SEC) at 4 p.m. Friday at the LSU Tennis Complex.
The matchup against the Razorbacks marks the sixth consecutive top-30 opponent for the Lady Tigers and 10th of the season. Over the course of conference play, LSU has earned wins over No. 38 Alabama, No. 27 Ole miss and No. 26 Kentucky.
“I am looking forward to hosting two powerful teams this weekend,” co-head coach Julia Sell said. “It is going to be a great weekend of tennis back home in front of our fans.”
Junior Joana Vale Costa leads the way for the Lady Tigers with a ranking of 19 in singles play. The Lisbon, Portugal native is 12-6 in dual matches this spring on court one. Vale Costa earned her first two conference wins last weekend over the Wildcats’ Justina Mikulskyte and the Commodores’ Astra Sharma who is ranked 33rd in the country.
Freshman Jessica Golovin is also ranked 48th in singles play. Golovin is 7-10 and 1-4 in conference between the top three courts.
Sophomore Ryann Foster has impressed with her record of 15-2 this spring. The transfer is 3-1 against nationally ranked opponents and is 7-2 in her last nine matches.
The most crucial part of LSU’s lineup has been courts four through six. Junior Abby Owens is 14-4 and 5-1 in league play. Senior Ella Taylor is 11-4 on court six this season. The duo is a combined 24-9 on five and six for the Lady Tigers this season.
The Razorbacks are on a four-match win streak and made a jump to 26 in the team rankings after a sweep of No. 43 Alabama and No. 15 Auburn. The team ranking is the highest for the program since 2012.
In addition to the high team rankings, Arkansas also features two players in the singles rankings in No. 83 Ana Oparenovic and No. 88 Yuliya Lysa. Oparenovic is a team-best 12-4 in dual matches and 4-1 in conference.
LSU leads the all-time series against Arkansas 19-18, but the Razorbacks have dominated the series in recent years with a nine-match win streak dating back to the 2009 season.
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