The LSU men’s and women’stennis teams prepare for Southeastern Conference foes Mississippi State and Ole Miss this weekend.
The Lady Tigers (9-10, 1-7 SEC) upset No. 26 Tulane, 4-3, Wednesday night to end a two game losing streak. The victory also extended LSU’s consecutive winning streak against in-state opponents to 41 games.
LSU hosts Mississippi State (6-11, 0-8 SEC) today at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium at 2 p.m. The Lady Bulldogs are in the midst of a nine game losing streak.
Ole Miss (5-12, 1-7 SEC) visits the Lady Tigers Sunday at 1 p.m. Ole Miss boasts the No. 25 singles player in the country, Mira Radu.
“This will be another tough, hard-fought weekend against two very good SEC teams,” said women’s tennis head coach Tony Minnis. “It was good for us to beat Tulane, and now we just need to keep the momentum up for this weekend.”
On the flip side, the men’s team travels this weekend to battle Mississippi State today and Ole Miss Sunday.
LSU (10-6, 3-5 SEC) moved up in the rankings to No. 17 this week after defeating No. 12 Kentucky, 4-2, last weekend. Peter Richman remained ranked No. 38 in singles play, while doubles team Jason Hazley and Bryan Fisher stayed at No. 13.
No. 33 Mississippi State (7-9, 3-6 SEC) won its past two matches against No. 18 Georgia and No. 42 Tennessee. The Bulldogs boast two ranked singles players, No. 25 Romain Ambert and No. 123 Max Fomine.
Ole Miss (14-3, 8-2 SEC) is ranked No. 5 in the nation. The Rebels have three singles players ranked in the top-25 — No. 29 Paul Ciorascu, No. 21 Catalin Gard and No. 15 Alex Hartman. Thanks to the trio, Ole Miss has won eight of its last nine matches.
“Mississippi State has been coming on stronger as the year has gone on,” said men’s tennis head coach Jeff Brown. “Ole Miss has been pretty solid the whole year. We’ll take it one match at a time. If we get Mississippi State, then we’ll look for the sweep.”