Freezing gusts of wind and a slight drizzle dragged out the LSU women’s tennis team’s day, but Ole Miss made up for the postponement by putting the Lady Tigers away early on Sunday.
LSU fell to the Rebels 4-1 on Sunday, after a rain delay pushed first serve back an hour — something LSU coach Julia Sells said had a definite impact on her team.
“I don’t think we responded well to [the weather],” Sells said. “I thought we had a lot of slow starts on every single court and that especially killed us on [court] two and three. They just couldn’t come back from that.”
Sells later clarified her statement saying she doesn’t believe the weather was the primary reason for the loss, but rather the way the young Tigers squad responded to the delay.
The Tigers’ coach also said LSU allowed the singles matches to be played first on Sunday in order to accommodate Ole Miss’ travel plans for the weekend. The match did not make it past singles play.
LSU freshman Joana Vale Costa was the lone Tiger to walk away from Sunday on a positive note. Vale Costa eventually took the match 2-1 after dropping the hotly contested first set, only to bounce back winning 12 of the next 13 games.
“She did a good job, but same thing — a really slow start and she kind of beat herself there in the first set,” Sells said. “She managed to turn it around and we almost turned it around on some other courts.”
The rest of the Lady Tigers weren’t as fortunate as Vale Costa, with every loss coming in straight sets. LSU freshman Skylar Holloway was leading Ole Miss junior Iris Verboven in the second set, before the match was called due to the Rebels reaching the four wins needed to clinch the victory.
LSU sophomore Ella Taylor produced possibly the best performance in LSU’s four losses, but dropped three straight games to lose the first set 6-4, giving Ole Miss junior Erin Stephens enough momentum to close out the win with another 6-4 set.
The loss comes as LSU’s sixth loss in SEC play, heading into a two-match road trip with South Carolina on Friday and Florida next Sunday.
“It’s the same thing, every match in the SEC is so tough,” Sells said. “They’re all good, they’re all battles and we’ve had a lot of close battles. Even today, we almost turned it around there. We have to get better this week, we have to improve.”