BATON ROUGE, La. –The LSU women’s tennis team (14-8, 6-6 SEC) opened the final weekend of the regular season with a hard fought 4-2 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide (14-8, 5-7 SEC) on Friday night at the LSU Tennis Complex.
Taylor’s Thoughts
“A good win against a strong program tonight,” head coach Taylor Fogleman said. “They have a very similar team to the one that handled us well in Tuscaloosa last year, so it was nice to be able to get the win back this time around. Jonathan (Berhane, head coach of Alabama) might be young in his head coaching career, but he’s already invigorated their program since taking charge and he’s someone that I have a lot of respect for as a coach and a person.”
“We’re continuing to find ways to win, which is always welcome at this point in the season, but I know that we can still work on some things. We jumped on them to start the match and take the doubles point but we let our foot off the gas when singles started and made it more competitive down the stretch. We certainly took some leads in singles, but we allowed them to take some momentum and gain advantage at times that we shouldn’t have. In the end, we did get the result and we’re happy with that. There are some things that we can do better though, and we’ll see if we can do those things better on Sunday against a really good Auburn team.”
Doubles Results
The Crimson Tide grabbed the first doubles win of the match when Petra Sedlackova and Anna Parkhomenko narrowly defeated Florentine Dekkers and Aran Teixidó Garcia by a score of 6-4 at the No. 2 doubles court.
Gaby Rivera and Maya Tahan tied it up in doubles after they took down Klara Milicevic and Ola Pitak by a score of 6-3 at the No. 3 spot for their sixth doubles win of the year together.
LSU clinched the doubles point at the top court, where Anita Sahdiieva and Kenna Erickson earned the highest ranked win of the season by defeating No. 14 Anne Marie Hiser and Loudmilla Bencheikh. The LSU and Alabama duos battled it out in the first few games, but the LSU pair pulled away and went on to win 6-3. The win is Sahdiieva and Erickson’s third consecutive against a ranked foe and their fourth in conference play at the No. 1 court.
Singles Results
Alabama struck first in singles as No. 102 Sedlackova defeated No. 91 Teixido Garcia at the No. 2 court. Sedlackova took the first set by a score of 6-2 and did well to hold off Teixidó Garcia’s strong play in the second as she narrowly won 7-5 to secure her court.
The Crimson Tide took a 2-1 lead on the night when Pitak took down doubles-foe Tahan at the No. 4 spot. Pitak took an early lead and held off a comeback from Tahan in the first set to win 6-4 and went on to only drop two games in the second set in a 6-2 win.
Erickson tied it back up at 2-2 after taking down Milicevic at the No. 6 court. The Alabama player opened on the offensive foot, blanking Erickson 6-0 in the first set to open their match. The LSU freshman recovered in the second set, however, and only dropped two games in a 6-2 win that forced a third set. In the third set, Erickson grabbed an early lead and didn’t look back en route to a 6-3 win that tied up the team score on the night. Individually, Erickson’s win streak improved to three straight in singles as well as three straight in doubles.
The Tigers retook the lead when Rivera took down Parkhomenko at the No. 5 spot in straight sets. Rivera opened the match with her foot on the gas and dropped only one game as she won the first set, 6-1. The second saw Parkhomenko take an early lead, but Rivera battled back and eventually forced a tiebreaker in the set after 12 games at 6-6. The tiebreaker opened with both players swapping points, but Rivera showed grit and finished strong as she won 7-4 and pushed her team back into the lead. Individually for Rivera, it was her fifth singles win of the year and her third win in as many matches.
LSU clinched a 4-2 win over the Crimson Tide when No. 109 Dekkers took down No. 51 Bencheikh in three sets at the top singles court. The two players battled it out in a close first set, with Dekkers holding off a charge from Bencheikh to win the first set by a margin of 6-4. The second set saw Bencheikh flip the script and blank Dekkers, 6-0, to extend the match to a third set. The decisive set was a back-and-forth match that saw the players split 12 games at 6-6, requiring a tiebreaker to decide it. In the tiebreaker, Dekkers staved off multiple match points late in the set and win three straight points to grab a 10-8 win and clinch victory for herself and her team. After missing two matches due to illness last week, Dekkers’ slotted right back into the lineup and picked up her third ranked singles win of the season to give the Tigers their 14th team win of the year.
Up Next
The Tigers will host Senior Day in the final regular season match when No. 14 Auburn visits the LSU Tennis Complex at noon CT on Sunday, April 14. 15 minutes before the start of the match, LSU will honor graduate students Aran Teixidó Garcia and Maya Tahan.
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LSU vs. Alabama
Apr. 12, 2024
LSU Tennis Complex
#33 LSU 4, #29 Alabama 2
Singles
- #109 Florentine Dekkers (LSU) def. #51 Loudmilla Bencheikh (UA) 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (10-8)
- #102 Petra Sedlackova (UA) def. #91 Aran Teixido Garcia (LSU) 6-2, 7-5
- Anita Sahdiieva (LSU) vs. Anne Marie Hiser (UA) 6-1, 6-7 (2-7), 3-1, unfinished
- Ola Pitak (UA) def. Maya Tahan (LSU) 6-4, 6-2
- Gaby Rivera (LSU) def. Anna Parkhomenko (UA) 6-1, 7-6 (7-4)
- Kenna Erickson (LSU) def. Klara Milicevic (UA) 0-6, 6-2, 6-3
Doubles
- #81 Anita Sahdiieva/Kenna Erickson (LSU) def. #14 Anne Marie Hiser/Loudmilla Bencheikh (UA) 6-3
- Petra Sedlackova/Anna Parkhomenko (UA) def. Florentine Dekkers/Aran Teixido Garcia (LSU) 6-4
- Gaby Rivera/Maya Tahan (LSU) def. Klara Milicevic/Ola Pitak (UA) 6-3
Match Notes:
Alabama 14-8, 5-7 SEC; National ranking #29
LSU 14-8, 6-6 SEC; National ranking #33
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (2,4,6,5,1)
Official: Richie Weaver T-3:03 A-111