As the leaves start to fall from what’s left of the trees on campus, practice is underway for the LSU’s tennis and golf teams. Each team begins its fall season traveling to invitational tournaments this weekend.TENNIS  Led by seniors Megan Falcon, Mykala Hedberg, Chandler Kleinpeter and Staten Spencer, the LSU women’s tennis team opens its season at the Gopher Invitational in Minneapolis.”The four girls have a lot of character and experience,” said coach Tony Minnis. “They all think we can have a better group this year.”Minnis said he wants his team to be more cohesive and improve on last year’s results. In the 2007-08 season, the Lady Tigers’ record was 15-10, finishing second in the Southeastern Conference Western Division.”We want to do things right as far as work ethic and attitude,” Minnis said. “If we do, the winning and losing will take care of itself.” While the women’s team will rely on its experienced seniors, the LSU men’s tennis team has to reload after the loss of former   Tigers Colt Gasto, Jan Zelezny and Kevin Dessauer.  “We’re excited with the new guys we have,” coach Jeff Brown said. “We’re trying to figure out where they will do the best and be the most competitive.”The Tigers, who finished last season ranked No. 18, open their season Sep. 19th at Lafayette in the ULL Invitational because of the cancellation of the Rice Invitational because of Hurricane Ike.Seniors Michael Venus and James Clusky come into the season ranked No. 5 in the nation as doubles partners, but Brown said the other two doubles spots need to be filled for the team to succeed. “We’ve got to put two more teams together for us to be our best,” Brown said. GOLFThe LSU women’s golf team opens the season ranked No. 13 nationally and No. 4 in the SEC by Golfweek’s Magazine. After her team finished No. 15 in the NCAA Championships last year, coach Karen Bahnsen believes the Tigers can improve on their performance.  “We can be a top-10 team this year,” Bahnsen said. “We added more depth this year.”The depth should help because the top five scores count for each team in every tournament. Sophomore Megan McChrystal, is confident her team will have success. “I know we are going to nationals, and I know we are going to at least finish in the top 10,” said McChrystal. The Lady Tigers travels to Hanahan, S.C. for the Cougar Classic this weekend. After finishing the 2007-08 season 91-80-4, the LSU men’s golf team begins its season this weekend at Wayzata, Minn., in the Gopher Invitational. The Tigers enter the season coming off an 8th place finish in the SEC. The team will be led by senior Jarrod Barsamian, who was the 2008 Louisiana Amateur Champion. —- Jarred LeBlanc at [email protected]