The Lady Tigers’ perfect season came to an end Sunday after the team was shut out by Texas A&M 7-0 at W.T. ‘Dub’ Robinson Stadium.
“We did not come out ready to play,” LSU coach Tony Minnis said.
Before the match Minnis said Texas A&M is one of the most difficult non-conference teams that the Lady Tigers would face this season. Texas A&M came into the game with an overall record of 2-2 with wins over Houston and Texas State and losses to No. 13 Kentucky and Maryland.
The lone LSU victory came in doubles competition when senior Lauren Seaman and sophomore Tiffany Tucker defeated the 29th-ranked duo of junior Sarah Foster and junior Anna Lubinsky.
After senior Camila Caliari and sophomore Anastasiya Dubova dropped the next match, freshman Mykala Hedberg and senior Marina Chiarelli went up 7-4 in the final doubles pairing of the day. They could not hang on, however, and lost the match 9-7 to sophomore Anna Blogadarova and junior Nicki Mechem.
In singles play all of the Lady Tigers lost their first match points. Hedberg, Chiarelli and Caliari fought back to win their second sets. The effort was not enough, and the team dropped the second and third game points to fall to 0-3.
Nicki Mechem finished off the match by beating Dubova 7-5 and earned the clinching game point for Texas A&M.
“The intensity did not seem to be there,” Minnis said. “The team is capable of performing much better.”
Hedberg said she thought she competed well and fought all the way to the end.
“I had too many unforced errors and was concentrating too much on winning and needed to concentrate more on the point at hand,” said Hedberg.
Hedberg said she thinks she needs to work on staying loose all match because being tight hurt her game.
The Lady Tigers fall to an overall record of 4-1 with this loss. They travel Wednesday to Tallahassee, Fla. to face Florida State University.
“We will try and work on the intensity level at practice and try to play with more fire,” Minnis said.
 
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