Mother Nature has not been kind to LSU’s tennis teams lately.
 
The postponement of the Lady Tigers’ home matches against Prairie View A&M and Texas Tech last week created a domino effect. The women had to play the Red Raiders in New Orleans on Thursday and have since bounced from there to College Station, Texas, to Houston in the span of four days.
 
“It’s been a very, very tough spring as far as weather is concerned,” said LSU women’s coach Tony Minnis. “It’s made it tough on our players. … They’ve had good attitudes about it.”
 
The Lady Tigers (0-2) will face Rice at 1 p.m. today for the first time since a grueling four-hour match last season, which ended in a 4-3 loss for LSU.
 
The Tigers (1-2) haven’t been quite as unfortunate, defeating Rice, 5-2, on Sunday in their home opener. They will play Louisiana-Lafayette at 3 p.m. and the University of New Orleans at 7 p.m. in a doubleheader originally scheduled for last Thursday.
 
It has been a trying week for both teams, which have scrambled to find alternative practice venues to W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium. LSU men’s coach Jeff Brown and Minnis have been forced to become creative with practices because of low temperatures and high winds.
 
Last week, the teams retreated indoors to Independence Park, played under the lights at the Country Club of Louisiana and even held makeshift practices in an airport hanger.
 
The Tigers had a three-hour practice at 9 p.m. at CCL’s indoor facility as temperatures dropped to a low of 26 degrees outside. Despite the change in venue, Brown said the team managed to have a productive weekend.
 
“The weather’s been real challenging,” Brown said. “There were some sacrifices last week. … It paid off, luckily. We were able to get some good practices in.”
 
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Contact Katherine Terrell at
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