BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU women’s tennis team (11-7, 3-5 SEC) will face Top 25 opposition when the No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies (15-6, 7-1 SEC) come to the LSU Tennis Complex for an SEC dual match at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, March 29.
Admission to all matches at the LSU Tennis Complex is free of charge with fans required to follow the clear bag policy.
No. 13 Texas A&M (Mar. 29)
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Notes on Texas A&M
The Tigers and Aggies will meet for the 49th time in the series history on Friday, with Texas A&M holding a 32-16 lead in the matchup. When the teams met last season in College Station, the Aggies claimed a 5-2 win over the visiting Tigers.
Texas A&M comes to Baton Rouge with a 15-6 record, 7-1 in SEC play and a ranking of No. 13 in the latest ITA team rankings. The Aggies have four wins against Top 25 foes this season and have dropped only one match in conference play thus far: a 4-3 defeat at No. 10 Georgia two weeks ago.
The Aggies are led by the No. 1-ranked singles player in the country in Mary Stoiana, a junior from the state of Connecticut. With a 23-3 record dating back to the fall, Stoiana has been ranked the top singles player by the ITA since the conclusion of fall play last November. She’s joined in the ITA singles rankings by two teammates: No. 14 Nicole Khirin and No. 36 Mia Kupres to complete a strong 1-3 singles sequence in the lineup.
In doubles, Stoiana and Kupres are currently ranked No. 5 in the nation with a 19-4 record on the year. They’ve appeared at the No. 1 spot all season.
Last Time Out
The Tigers returned to the LSU Tennis Complex for the first time in three weeks and split two matches last weekend. LSU took down Kentucky by a score of 5-2 on Friday night before narrowly dropping a 4-3 match on Sunday against Vanderbilt.
LSU claimed the doubles point in Friday night’s match with Gaby Rivera and Maya Tahan winning their court before Aran Teixidó Garcia and Florentine Dekkers clinched the point. In singles, Teixidó Garcia, Anita Sahdiieva, Dekkers and Kenna Erickson earned singles wins to take the tally up to five on the night.
On Sunday against Vanderbilt, the Commodores took the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Despite singles wins from Dekkers, Sahdiieva and Maya Tahan, the Tigers fell one point short on the day in a 4-3 defeat.
Tiger Tidbits
In this week’s ITA team rankings, the Tigers moved up one spot to No. 39.
Anita Sahdiieva leads the team this spring in singles wins with a perfect 11-0 record playing at the No. 3 and 4 courts. The Ukrainian has been a key part of success for the Tigers this season with her singles wins and her presence in doubles, earning seven wins at the No. 1 doubles spot playing with freshmen Kenna Erickson and Kinaa Graham.
Aran Teixidó Garcia has enjoyed a strong season in doubles and singles this spring. In doubles, she and partner Florentine Dekkers have tallied an 11-5 record playing at the No. 2 court. In singles, Teixidó Garcia’s 10-3 record accounts for the second most singles win in dual play and has seen her recently move up from the No. 2 spot to the No. 1 in the lineup.
Graduate student Maya Tahan enters the weekend with a 9-3 record in singles playing at the No. 5 spot for the Tigers. Tahan’s nine singles wins ranks third on the team and her three singles wins in SEC play ranks second in the squad.
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