LSU concludes its conference-only fall season this weekend, facing off against more talented Southeastern Conference foes in Alabama, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Each team ranked within the top-50 last season, but this is the only fall event that doesn’t feature a top-15 team, making this the least challenging of the three invitationals.
Alabama was also present at LSU’s last event. The Tigers faced them throughout the first day of the Bulldog Challenge, where they struggled to win much. They went 1-3 in doubles and 1-4 in singles in matches versus the Crimson Tide.
Alabama ranked just outside of the top-25 last season and had a record of 11-5 (2-3 in SEC) and went 4-3 in seven straight ranked matches. They were 4-5 against teams ranked in the top-50, with wins over Vanderbilt, Texas Tech, Arizona and No. 18 South Carolina.
The other two teams, Kentucky and Vanderbilt, have two things in common: they were both ranked last season and faced the Tigers this spring.
Kentucky was ranked No. 33 last season and posted an overall record of 12-5 with an impressive 3-1 record versus SEC opponents. They lost to No. 10 Texas A&M but followed that with three consecutive SEC wins before the season ended, including 4-3 victories over both the Tigers and Crimson Tide.
Vanderbilt was ranked nine spots under the Wildcats at No. 42 but struggled immensely towards the end of the season. They finished with a 7-6 record (1-3 in SEC) and only won two of their last seven games after starting 5-1.
Their losses included two close ones at the hands of the Tigers and Crimson Tide, who each defeated the Commodores 4-3.
This event isn’t quite as difficult as the other two were for the Tigers, at least on paper. That isn’t a knock on the teams featured though. It just depicts how stacked the SEC is in college tennis.
Though the Tigers struggled against Alabama two weeks ago and may not be on their level, Kentucky and Vanderbilt are neck-and-neck with them in terms of talent, proven by how competitive their matches were last spring.
While Coach Chris Brandi agrees that the team should have more wins this weekend, he is more focused on the team maintaining momentum and improving throughout this weekend and the rest of the fall.
“All I care about is when we have practice these next two weeks, are we continuing the momentum we had for the prior two weeks?” Brandi said. “We’ve got all of November, all of December and the beginning of January to keep that going, and if we do that, I know good things are going to come.”
The team has struggled against tough competition this fall, but the coaches are confident in the ability of their players, and they have shown a lot of promise. We’ll get one last chance to witness what they can do before the fall season is finished this weekend.
