Love, love.
Those words signify the beginning of a new tennis match and for the LSU women’s team, a fresh start.
The Lady Tigers launched their first sets as a complete team this weekend as they traveled to Atlanta, Ga., for the Atlanta Classic at the Sharon Lester Tennis Center. Team scores weren’t calculated at the Classic, but competition followed the dual-match format employed during the spring season.
Georgia State hosted the three-day tournament, which began Friday morning as LSU was joined by No. 26 Georgia Tech and Columbia.
Love also describes LSU coach Julia Sell’s impression of her team’s performance at the event, in which freshmen Skylar Holloway and Abigail Owens, and junior transfer Noel Scott made their court debuts for LSU.
“This team, they’re a competitive group,” Sell said. “They’re a passionate group and day by day, we got better and better where [Sunday] was definitely our best tennis, which is the way you want to work your way in to any tournament. … They had very high-quality matches, they had great wins.”
The Lady Tigers faced a Georgia Tech team Sunday that finished last season ranked No. 21 in the country. LSU won four of its five singles matches against the Yellow Jackets, highlighted by Scott’s 6-4, 6-3 victory against Tech’s No. 67 Kendal Woodard.
Scott faced top-ranked opponents throughout the weekend, falling to Georgia State’s No. 37 Abigail Tere-Apisah 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday and Columbia’s No. 104 Bianca Sanon 7-6, 7-5 on Friday.
Over the course of the three days, every LSU newcomer recorded at least one victory in singles, including freshmen Gabrielle Otero and Owens winning all three of the matches they competed in.
Sell said she was excited to see how poised the freshmen played in their first collegiate contest and how the newcomers’ confidence influenced the returnees.
“I was really impressed with how [the freshmen] came into the tournament, and they didn’t seem too nervous,” Sell said. “They were fired up, fist pumping and just getting after it. I mean, that just speaks to the players they are … and the experience that they have coming in. We didn’t have that confidence with every player last year.”
LSU notched 13 singles victories at the tournament but won just three out of eight doubles matches. Two of the doubles wins came from the duo of Otero and junior Mary Jeremiah.
Since four of the seven Lady Tigers are new to the squad this year, continuity between doubles partners is not a huge concern at this point because pairs are still learning how to mesh together, Sell said.
But with the results from this weekend’s outing, Sell said she’s thrilled for what the team will bring to the court in spring 2014.
“My focus in the fall is always about improvement, Sell said. “I’m not as concerned with results. So, when you have very good results this early in the year it speaks highly because if you look at our year as a whole, usually right now will be the worst that we play. So, it’s a great start.”