The No. 13 LSU women’s tennis team suffered its first home loss of the season in Sunday’s doubleheader, falling to the University of South Alabama 4-3 after having blown out No. 75 Maryland 6-1.
Coming into the weekend, LSU coach Julia Sell was already worried. The Lady Tigers (8-3) had just returned from their third consecutive road tournament and were about to start their first home stretch of the season.
“I think we were tired from the last three weeks, which isn’t an excuse, but I think where we messed up today and especially this afternoon is that we weren’t as focused as we needed to,” Sell said. “That’s just unacceptable.”
But LSU started off strong. After defeating the Terrapins (1-3) in doubles play, the Tigers carried momentum through to singles play as No. 25 junior Joana Vale Costa, No. 40 freshman Jessica Golovin and senior Skylar Kuykendall all won their matches in two sets.
When LSU took to the courts a few hours later against South Alabama (7-3), everything was different.
The duo of sophomore Ryann Foster and Vale Costa delivered yet another strong performance and dominated court one in a 6-2 victory. But it was the Jaguars who came out quick, with freshman Alexandria Stiteler and junior Monica Mitta finishing first on court three defeating LSU’s junior Skylar Holloway and Golovin 6-2.
With an even score, all eyes remained on court two, where junior Abigail Owens and Kuykendall fought in a nail-biter, but let South Alabama pull away in the ninth set to clinch the doubles point, 6-4. 
“Our doubles play at two and three was pretty poor,” Sell said. “We didn’t play our style or our game plan.”
Hoping to turn things around, the Lady Tigers relied on Vale Costa, Kuykendall and Owens, after suffering two early losses in singles.
Despite a strong performance by Vale Costa, who defeated the Jaguars’ junior Laura Matuskova 6-4 and 7-5, South Alabama claimed the match when Owens fell to senior Michaela Meszarosova 7-5 in the third set, leaving Kuykendall’s match unfinished.
“When our mind fixates on things that aren’t going to help us play better, that’s when we struggle,” Sell said.
You can reach Markus Hufner on Twitter @Hufner_TDR