BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s tennis team will begin the 2017 season by hosting Northwestern St. and Southern in a doubleheader at the LSU Tennis Complex Saturday.
LSU, ranked No. 19 in the country, begins match play against Northwestern St. at 11 a.m. followed by Southern at 4 p.m. Fans in attendance will receive free T-shirts and LSU Women’s Tennis cups.
LSU is 20-1 all-time against Northwestern St. and 24-0 against Southern, with their two most recent matches against each team resulting in 7-0 sweeps in favor of the Tigers.
Last season under co-head coaches Julia Sell and Michael Sell, LSU had a 19-12 record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Coming into the 2017 season, LSU features a strong combination of both veteran leadership and promising young talent.
Seniors Joana Valle Costa, Abby Owens and Skylar Holloway have previous experience playing against both Northwestern St. and Southern, while junior Ryann Foster and sophomore Jessica Golovin both played in their first home match for the Tigers in a doubleheader last season against the Jags.
Freshmen Jade Lewis and Becca Weissmann will similarly experience their first home matches in Purple and Gold in a doubleheader featuring Southern on Saturday as members of LSU’s No. 1 recruiting class.
Northwestern St. is coached by Olga Bazhanova and had a 13-11 overall record (7-4 Southland) last season. Southern is coached by Jeffrey Conyers and had a 7-8 overall record (5-2 SWAC) last season.
Live stats will be available for both matches at www.LSUsports.net.
For more information on the LSU women’s tennis program follow the Lady Tigers on Twitter @lsuwten and @LSUJuliaSell, on Instagram @LSUWTen and on www.Facebook.com/lsuwten.