There are no bye-weeks in conference play.
As the No. 48 LSU men’s tennis team returns home to host No. 43 Alabama today at 5.30 p.m., the No. 18 women’s team continues its road trip to Nashville, Tennessee, to face No. 7 Vanderbilt at noon on Saturday.
After defeating No. 26 Kentucky 4-3 Thursday night, the Lady Tigers (14-5, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) are set to head into the harder part of their trip.
Vanderbilt has been a tremendous challenge year after year for the Lady Tigers and co-head coach Julia Sell has yet to beat the Commodores in her four seasons at LSU.
However, the team disregards old statistics and current rankings. Allowing their mindset be determined by numbers often came back to haunt the Lady Tigers in the past.
“We try to stay in the moment and just play the person across from us as much as we can,” said senior Ella Taylor. “At times, we have focused on rankings too much, and that has made us come out a little tentative or nervous. We’ve been in the top-10, so we should feel comfortable playing against those teams because we’re right there with them.”
Though Vanderbilt marks the Lady Tigers’ highest ranked SEC opponent so far this season, the environment at the Currey Tennis Center will force the actual adjustments.
Saturday’s forecast for Nashville predicts a high of 55 degrees. Though the team said they prefer to play indoors, a usual spring climate has become more of an unfamiliarity after the recent sunny weather in Baton Rouge.
“We’re heading into a colder climate,” Sell said. “Their indoor and outdoor is very different. It’ll really be a challenge whether we’re going to be inside or outside, but we’ll just have to make that game-day adjustment to whatever surface we’re on.”
On the men’s side, the Tigers (8-6) are coming off two -straight road losses to No. 22 Ole Misson March 10 and No. 32 Arkansas on March 12.
Last weekend’s setbacks highlight LSU’stwo main struggles throughout the early season.
The Tigers continued their skid against SEC opponents to fall 1-3 in conference play with a lone win coming via a 5-2 victory against Auburn on March 6.
Venturing beyond the confines of the LSU Tennis Complex has also caused issues for the
Tigers, who are 0-5 on the road this season.
“They were good teams,” said LSU coach Jeff Brown. “It’s not that we weren’t capable of winning those matches, but it’s to the point where we’ve played a pretty tough schedule and we have to play
exceptionally well in order to get through, especially on the road.”
Most of all, Brown seeks consistency from his team, which LSU has yet to achieve in 2016.
Despite their struggles on the road and during conference play, the Tigers have commanded respect at home, boasting a 7-1 record with their lone loss coming against then-No. 30 Florida on March 4.
“We have to play well everywhere.” said Brown. “Some people have been playing better one day but we need to get everyone on the same page together [to win]. ”
LSU faces another strong SEC rival to close the weekend Sunday, when the team faces No. 25 Mississippi State at 1 p.m in the LSU Tennis Complex.

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Wingate Jones

LSU Senior Ella Taylor playing a singles match during LSU's 5-2 victory against the Arizona Wildcats on Friday, Feb. 26, 2016 at the LSU Tennis Complex