LSU women’s tennis coach Tony Minnis had to wait through a three-hour rain delay Wednesday. But in the end, his team rewarded him with his 250th career win as darkness fell at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.The Lady Tigers beat Oregon, 5-1. Minnis said he was more excited about the players’ performance than his milestone.”I am as proud of them as any team I’ve ever coached,” Minnis said. “I’m really excited because I was very worried about this match. We had two starters out, so to step up and come through was great.”LSU seniors Megan Falcon and Staten Spencer did not play on Wednesday because of injuries, but two of their freshman teammates stepped up in their absence to carry the Lady Tigers (11-4) to a win against the Ducks (7-9).”Hopefully [Falcon’s] injury is not too serious,” Minnis said. “She is day-to-day for now.”LSU freshman Whitney Wolf moved up to court No. 2 and was first to finish, beating Pavlina Smatova, 6-2, 6-2, to run her singles record to 13-12 this season.”To win this way was really encouraging,” Wolf said. “[Having Megan and Staten out] made everyone a little bit nervous, but we handled it really well and took care of business. It was nice to beat them that bad.”Fellow freshman Nicole Smith also handily defeated her opponent, Siobhan Cavan, 6-1, 6-1. The South Africa native is now 9-9 in singles play.”Nicole played unreal. That was the best I’ve ever seen her play,” Minnis said. “And Whitney is a very talented player. She had been out with [mononucleosis] for a while, so that was good to see.”LSU junior Nicole Kantor clinched the match for the Lady Tigers with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Oregon’s Ana Cecilia Olivos.Kantor said the Lady Tigers stuck together against a tough Oregon team, despite Falcon’s recent injury.”We were a little flustered, but we knew we needed to carry the team now because she’s done so much for us the past three years,” she said. “We all just really stepped up today, especially the freshmen. They were off the court so fast, and it was nice to know we already had two points.”Kantor said she realized how important it was for her to come through and seal the win with LSU ahead of Oregon, 3-1.”I knew it pretty much came down to my match toward the end,” she said. “At 4-all, it got kind of tight, but luckily I was able to win that game. At 5-4, I knew how much I needed to step up because I saw [LSU senior] Mykala [Hedberg] was having a tough match.”—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]