There was no question the LSU tennis teams struggled this semester.
The Lady Tigers ended a transition season with an 11-13 record and a loss to Kentucky on April 21 in the Southeastern Conference Championship tournament.
The Tigers (11-13, 5-6) also got ousted in the SEC tournament by No. 5 Georgia but will continue into postseason play with a spot in the NCAA Championship tournament. LSU will face Indiana on May 13 at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas.
LSU found itself facing a tough schedule and a few weeks of bad weather early in the spring. Without the benefit of an indoor tennis facility, the Tigers were forced to move their practices to places like the Country Club of Louisiana.
The Lady Tigers found themselves in a similar predicament, practicing in airport hangars or wherever they could find a suitable place.
“It’s been a very, very tough spring as far as weather is concerned,” LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis said at the time. “It’s made it tough on our players. … They’ve had good attitudes about it.”
The combination of the weather and schedule took its toll on the Tigers early on. They lost four of five matches during a road stretch from Feb. 12 to March 6.
Three of those losses came to top-15 teams — No. 4 Ohio State on Feb 12., No. 14 Texas A&M on Feb. 27 and No. 11 Florida on March 4.
The Tigers had one of their best moments of the season in their win against the Aggies. LSU’s No. 14 ranked doubles pair of junior Neal Skupski and senior Sebastian Carlsson defeated the No. 1-ranked duo of Jeff Dadamo and Austin Krajicek, 8-6.
“We fought really hard in doubles, and we would take that effort on the road every time,” LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown said following the match. “[Skupski and Carlsson] are going in the right direction, and anytime you beat an opponent of that caliber it’s a big win.”
The Tigers began to find their stride at the end of the road skid with a 5-2 victory against South Carolina. They picked up wins against No. 22 Ole Miss, No. 16 Michigan and No. 18 Auburn before ending the regular season with a 6-1 victory against Arkansas.
The Lady Tigers started the semester on a three-match losing skid before getting their first win against Tulane on Feb. 16. It wasn’t until a 2-5 loss to Oklahoma State that Minnis forced the team to make some changes.
Minnis placed sophomore Keri Frankenberger and freshman Yvette Vlaar together on a doubles team, breaking up the duo of Frankenberger and junior Whitney Wolf.
Wolf and Frankenberger had experienced success in the fall but couldn’t find a win in the spring, prompting Minnis to shuffle the lineup.
The Lady Tigers won five matches in a row following the change. They got some help late in the season with the addition of junior college transfer Olivia Howlett, who played in the last seven matches of the regular season.
Howlett’s presence ultimately didn’t help an injury-plagued team. The Lady Tigers won two of their last seven matches, ending the regular season with a 4-3 loss to No. 19 Arkansas.
 
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Contact Katherine Terrell at [email protected]