BATON ROUGE La. – The LSU women’s tennis team (6-3, 0-2 SEC) returns to action at the LSU Tennis Complex for the first time in nearly six weeks as they host the Missouri Tigers (9-5, 0-2 SEC) in the first SEC home match of the season at 5 p.m. CT on Friday night.
Friday’s match will feature a free bowl of pastalaya for the first 50 fans in attendance or on a first come, first serve basis. The match is also a student point night, with attending students able to claim double priority points for attending the match and checking in.
Missouri (Mar. 10)
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The Matchup
LSU boasts a perfect 10-0 record in the series history against Missouri. The teams last met at the Mizzou Tennis Complex in 2022, where LSU came out on top in a battle of the Tigers by a score of 4-2. LSU secured the doubles point before picking up singles wins from Nina Geissler, Mia Rabinowitz and Ena Babic.
The Tigers of Missouri enter the match with a 9-5 record in dual matches. Like LSU, Missouri opened conference play last weekend on the road. The Tigers fell 4-0 at No. 20 Tennessee on Friday and then were defeated 4-0 at No. 6 Georgia on Sunday.
Missouri are led in singles by freshman Laura Masic, who has a 15-7 overall record in singles and has been ranked numerous times in the ITA singles rankings this season. She boasts a dual-play record of 8-2 and has primarily played at the No. 2 spot for Mizzou this season.
Mizzou are led by interim head coach Bianca Turati, who was elevated to the role on February 23rd. Turati will coach opposite of a familiar face in the form of LSU head coach Taylor Fogleman, who coached her during a standout playing career at the University of Texas. While at Texas together, Turati was an ITA Singles All-American in 2018 and 2020 and reached as high as No. 1 in the singles rankings in 2018, the first Longhorn to achieve the feat in 25 years.
Tiger Tidbits
The Tigers play host at the LSU Tennis Complex for the first time since January 29, where they defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions by a score of 5-2.
LSU opened conference play last weekend on the road, narrowly falling to South Carolina by a score of 4-3 on Friday night and ending the weekend with a 4-1 defeat at No. 24 Florida on Sunday in a match that saw two courts go unfinished with LSU players leading in the third sets.
In the latest ITA rankings, LSU’s ranked trio remained present. In singles, Kylie Collins leads the Tigers at No. 17 while Anastasiya Komar moved up to No. 26. LSU’s leading doubles pair of Komar and freshman Nikita Vishwase round out the trio by checking in at No. 22. As a team, the Tigers are ranked No. 39.
Anastasiya Komar continues to shine this season in singles play this season and had her best weekend of dual matches yet last week. On Friday, she earned the highest ranked win of her collegiate career when she defeated No. 12 Sarah Hamner of South Carolina in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. She finished the weekend by picking up her sixth ranked singles win of the season on Sunday by defeating No. 83 Sara Dahlstrom of Florida by a score of 6-3, 7-6(2). Komar boasts a perfect 8-0 record in dual play, scoring a singles point in all but one match this season for the Tigers.
Doubles play has been a strong point for the Tigers in dual matches this season. The top court has posted a record of 6-1, No. 2 has a record of 4-2 and the No. 3 court boasts a 6-3 tally for a total record of 16-6. The Tigers have secured the doubles point in seven out of nine matches this season.
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