A sigh of relief rippled through the LSU tennis lounge yesterday as the women’s tennis team learned they will be playing in the NCAA Tournament.
“Wow,” said Lady Tiger freshman Lauren Seaman when she heard the news. “I don’t believe it.”
The No. 50 Lady Tigers (13-13) will travel to Los Angeles, Cali., to challenge No. 28 Texas A&M (19-10) on May 10 for the first round regional of the NCAA Tournament. The Aggies defeated LSU, 5-2, earlier this season.
“Texas A&M is a pretty good first round match,” said junior Rocio Fantilli. “I don’t think we played against them [then] how we were playing at the end of the season. I think we’re going to have a pretty good chance [to beat them].”
The winner of the match will face the winner of the California/Army victor in the second round.
The LSU men’s tennis team (13-10) learned they will travel to New Orleans to battle No. 56 South Alabama (19-7) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on May 10.
South Alabama finished the season with a five-game winning streak. Heinrich Heyl, the No. 91 player singles play this season, is 15-9 in singles competition on the season for South Alabama.
“[This draw] is kind of what I expected, as far as [the NCAA] keeping in geographical,” said coach Jeff Brown. “I know [South Alabama] had some decent results. I think they’re very capable of playing some good tennis.”
No. 15 Tulane (19-5) hosts the first round regional. The LSU/South Alabama winner will face the Tulane/Southern University winner in the second round.
“I feel good about our guys,” Brown said. “And I feel good about our opportunities to do well against South Alabama and Tulane. We’re obviously going to have to take care of business.”