The No. 21 LSU women’s tennis team is coping with some bad weather heading into the weekend, just like so many others around the LSU campus area.The Lady Tigers (11-4, 1-2) suffered three hours of rain delay in Thursday’s 5-2 win against Oregon because of driving rain and upcoming tornado warnings. To make matters worse, the weekend forecast for Friday’s match with No. 2 Georgia (13-2, 3-1) is likely more rain.”We need an indoor tennis facility very badly,” said LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis. “This is very difficult to compete and do things without one … And there’s an 80 percent chance against Georgia, so it’s putting us in a tough situation.”Minnis said the team nearly had to cancel the match with Oregon because of the weather.That didn’t happen — fortunately for Minnis. The win came as the 250th of his 18-year career, adding to his school-record win total.”[The win against Oregon] should give us some momentum now that we’ve won four in a row to get ready for Georgia,” Minnis said.Beating the Lady Bulldogs would be a tall enough order on its own, but the Lady Tigers could be without senior All-American Megan Falcon, who is day-to-day with an injury.Minnis did not disclose the specifics of Falcon’s injury.When the women finish with Georgia, they will head to Knoxville, Tenn., for a Sunday match with No. 13 Tennessee (10-3, 3-1).The LSU men’s team has a similar schedule ahead of it, although weather may not be as big a concern.The Tigers’ men’s team will host the No. 3 Bulldogs’ men’s team (14-2, 3-1) in Baton Rouge today at 5 p.m. before playing at No. 5 Tennessee (14-3, 3-1) on Sunday.LSU (6-6, 1-3) reached No. 31 in the polls this week, which is more impressive than it sounds in the Southeastern Conference — a league which currently has all 12 of its men’s tennis programs ranked in the top 35.——Contact David Helman at [email protected]
Tennis: Georgia poses top-10 challenge for men’s and women’s teams
March 26, 2009