The LSU women’s tennis team opened their first home tournament of the 2016-17 season at the 2016 LSU Fall Classic on Friday finished 1-1 in two doubles matches.
Rice’s Priya Niezgoda and Alison Ho defeated LSU’s Skylar Holloway and Jessica Golovin 6-4, and LSU’s Joana Vale Costa and Ryann Foster defeated Rice’s Katherine Ip and Wendy Zhang 6-3.
Following the doubles matches, LSU faced Princeton University in singles with five separate match-ups, which showed promise, LSU coach Julia Sell said.
Princeton’s Clare McKee defeated LSU’s Abby Owens in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1; Foster defeated Princeton’s Katrine Steffensen 6-1, 6-1; Vale Costa defeated Princeton’s Sivan Krem 6-2, 6-3.
“There were some really bright spots tonight,” Sell said. “I loved the way Ryann, Skylar, and Joanna competed. They made adjustments in their matches, and that’s why I think they were successful, because there were others that didn’t.”
Holloway dropped the first set against Princeton’s Caroline Joyce 6-1, but fought her way back into the match, taking the second set 1-6.
As a sizable crowd of fans made their way to the court, Holloway lost the final set 6-4 to conclude the match. However, she credited the home crowd for getting her excited.
“The crowd felt pretty good,” Holloway said. “It just makes things a lot easier on me.”
The final match of the day ended with Princeton’s Tiffany Chen defeating Golovin 7-5, 6-7, 7-6, putting LSU at 2-3 in singles play for the first day of the Fall Classic.
“[Golovin] would get down and then she’d kick it up a notch,” Sell said. “She turned a match that really should have been much simpler for her into a massively difficult problem.”
The Lady Tigers will face Tulane and Princeton in doubles beginning at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 12. Following the doubles matches, LSU will play Rice in singles.