LSU women’s tennis (14-4, 9-4 SEC) completed the regular season with a solid victory over Missouri (15-15, 1-12 SEC), only dropping one point in singles and dominating everywhere else. With that victory, the Tigers completed their SEC schedule with nine conference wins for the first time in program history.
With LSU entering the match with a three-match win streak against strong SEC competition, another conference win to close out the regular season would maximize the team’s momentum entering the SEC tournament. LSU previously defeated No. 40 Alabama, No. 17 Auburn and No. 29 Arkansas by a combined score of 12-3 and was looking to add Missouri as a fourth straight victory.
Missouri came out of the gate with a lot of energy, giving LSU more trouble than expected during doubles. But despite dropping the first doubles point on Court One, the Bayou Bengals were able to take the other two points and ultimately the doubles point.
No. 73 Taylor Bridges and Paris Corley were able to effectively control their entire match on Court Three, winning 6-3. On the other hand, the deciding match on Court Five was more of a struggle. Eden Richardson and Anna Loughlan had to bounce back from a 1-3 deficit to clinch the match and managed to do so, taking five of the last six points.
Missouri’s energy seemed to run out after that on most courts in singles, with every match being lopsided in LSU’s favor except one.
Nina Geissler was the first Bayou Bengal to strike, only dropping a total of two games in a 6-1 victory. And though the opposite was the case on Court One, LSU continued to dominate until the match was over.
No. 40 Paris Corley earned a solid 6-3, 6-1 win on her Senior Day to cap off her regular season singles record at 16-4. That was quickly followed by one last dominant performance by LSU, as Samantha Buyckx finished an impressive debut regular season with a 6-2 victory.
Despite arguably the most successful season in LSU women’s tennis history, the Tigers are predicted to be fourth seed in the conference tournament, with Georgia, Florida and Texas A&M all being expected to hold the top three spots. That’s still very impressive, as the team will finish over strong SEC teams like Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Ole Miss.
The program has been on the rise over the last few years and could poke its head into the top-10 after sweeping Arkansas and defeating Missouri this week. The road ahead of them is a challenging one, as the SEC Tournament will be filled with close matches, but an SEC title is not out of the question.
It’ll be interesting to see how far this Tiger team can go and where it’ll ultimately finish.