The LSU women’s tennis team will square off against in-state rival Tulane (6-0) on Tuesday in the Lady Tigers’ final home match before Southeastern Conference play begins.
The No. 65-ranked Lady Tigers (2-2), currently 1-2 at home, will attempt to even up their home record after splitting a doubleheader last week.
No. 69 Rice defeated the Lady Tigers 2-5 early Tuesday afternoon, but the Lady Tigers rallied to defeat Southern 5-2 later in the day.
“I was a little bit disappointed last week against Rice,” said LSU women’s tennis coach Tony Minnis. “I didn’t think we came out as intense as we could have and we just have to hopefully get it going again against a very solid Tulane team.”
Tulane is undefeated this season, allowing opponents a combined total of only four points all year.
The Green Wave are led this season by two undefeated doubles pairs, including Mariam Kurdadze and Emma Levy who have won nine-straight matches dating back to last season, and Lindsay Dvorak and Hila Elster, who have won 11 straight.
Doubles has been an area of concern for the Lady Tigers this season — they’ve dropped the doubles point in each of the losses to Rice and Texas A&M.
“We’ve struggled a little bit with our doubles,” Minnis said. “I hate to make excuses, but we’ve had a bunch of injuries in the past two weeks, but I think this is the healthiest we’ve been in a while.”
Each of the Lady Tigers’ three doubles pairs has lost at least two matches this season, and they will have their hands full again with Tulane’s red hot duos.
Minnis said the matchup with Tulane has always been an intense rivalry and added that he thinks Tulane carries a chip on its shoulder for perhaps playing second fiddle to LSU in Louisiana.
Tuesday’s match will be LSU’s final home outing before opening SEC play at Kentucky on March 2. The Lady Tigers will then travel to Vanderbilt on March 4 before returning home to host Alabama on March 9.
“I think the whole key to preparing for SEC play is to play a tough schedule,” Minnis said. “You hope to find out a lot about your team and get people in the position where they’re competing at a really high level, so once you start SEC the competition isn’t that different.”
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