In Oxford, Miss., the No. 41 LSU women’s tennis team (11-12, 4-8) was unable to avenge last weekend’s 5-2 loss to No. 36 Arkansas (12-12, 4-8) when the Lady Tigers dropped the rematch Thursday in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, 4-1.
“This was a tough loss today,” LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis said in a news release. “It’s unfortunate, but Arkansas played well.”
Tenth-seed Arkansas took the early advantage in the match, taking the doubles point from No. 7-seed LSU.
The Razorbacks’ Stephanie Roy and Emily Carbone defeated LSU senior Olivia Howlett and sophomore Yvette Vlaar on court two, 8-5.
Senior Whitney Wolf and junior Keri Frankenberger evened the doubles point battle on court one, beating Razorback pair Claudine Paulson and Laurie Gingras, 8-4.
Arkansas would clinch the point as Kate Lukomskaya and Catherine Parenteau took down junior Kaitlin Burns and sophomore Ariel Morton, 8-6, on court three.
Gringas carried the momentum into singles for the Razorbacks as she defeated Vlaar, 6-3, 6-0.
Lukomskaya took down Frankenberger, 6-3, 6-1, to bring the score to 3-0.
Morton picked up the only point for LSU, defeating Parenteau, 6-3, 6-2.
Arkansas’ Roy picked up the match-clinching point, beating Howlett on court two, 6-4, 6-3.
Wolf and Carbone left their match unfinished on court one, as did Burns and Paulson on court three.
Minnis said the Lady Tigers will await their postseason fortune in the coming weeks.
“Now we just sit back and wait to see if we will get an NCAA Tournament bid,” Minnis said.
The No. 19-ranked Tigers team (14-10, 5-7) lost a heartbreaker, 4-3, against No. 43 Vanderbilt (8-14, 3-9) in Starkville, Miss., on Thursday in the first round of the SEC Tournament.
The No. 8-seed Tigers struck early, sweeping the doubles point from the ninth-seed Commodores.
Juniors Olivier Borsos and Roger Anderson defeated Vandy duo Blake Bazarnik and Anton Kovrigin, 8-3.
On the top court, the No. 36-ranked duo of senior Neal Skupski and freshman Chris Simpson upset Vanderbilt’s No. 17-ranked Gonzales Austin and Alex DiValerio, 8-5, to clinch the point for the Tigers.
Senior Tom Knights and junior Stefan Szacinski left their match with Charlie Jones and Joe Dorn unfinished on court three.
Vanderbilt answered in singles as Bazarnik beat Knights, 6-4, 1-6, 4-6, to even the match.
DiValerio defeated senior David Roberts, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, to give the Commodores a 2-1 lead.
No. 38 Borsos then took down No. 40 Jones on the top court, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4, to even the score to 2-2.
Vanderbilt took the lead as Jeff Offerdahl upset No. 91 Simpson, 7-6, 4-6, 3-6.
Szacinski fought from behind in a battle to pull out a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 victory against Kovrigin to tie the match at 3-3.
With all eyes on the match, No. 102 Austin upset No. 54 Skupski, 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, to eliminate the Tigers from the tournament.
 
____
Contact Ian Fontenot at [email protected]