BATON ROUGE — For the second time this season, LSU women’s tennis freshman Eden Richardson was recognized by the Southeastern Conference as the SEC Freshman of the Week, the league office announced Wednesday.
“I’m really happy win to this award again, I definitely wasn’t expecting it,” Richardson said. “I feel like I’m playing really well right now, especially in doubles with Jess (Golovin). We’re really clicking and we’ve gotten to know each other’s games a lot better.”
Richardson went undefeated across singles and doubles this past weekend in a pair of 4-2 wins over No. 33 Arkansas and Missouri at home.
The freshman from Bath, England, ranked No. 120 in the country, improved to an incredible 23-4 on the season and increased her current win streak to 11 straight matches with wins over No. 87 Ana Oparenovic of Arkansas and Mackenzy Middlebrooks of Missouri.
Richardson’s win over Oparenovic was the second-highest-ranked win of her career and her highest-ranked win of the dual season. After dropping the first set, Richardson fought back in the second and won via tiebreaker before dominating the third set to clinch LSU’s 4-2 win over No. 33 Arkansas at home. Against Missouri, Richardson handed Middlebrooks just her second loss of the dual season in straight sets, 6-0, 6-4.
In doubles, the No. 27 pairing of Richardson and junior Jessica Golovin remained undefeated on court one with a 6-0 dismantling of Marta Oliveira and Clare Raley of Missouri. Richardson and Golovin have won five straight doubles matches, including two wins over top-15 pairings.
Richardson’s 23 total singles wins, 13 dual singles wins, 15 total doubles wins and nine dual doubles wins all lead the team.
The Tigers’ next match will come against No. 34 Texas A&M at College Station Friday at 5 p.m. CT.
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