It is crunch time for LSU tennis.
The LSU Lady Tigers (12-12) travel to College Station, Texas, to face No. 28 Texas A&M (19-10) today at 1 p.m. This is the ninth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for the Lady Tigers.
“Getting into the tournament for nine straight years is really a big accomplishment,” said women’s coach Tony Minnis. “I’m really excited, and I think that this will be the healthiest our team has been all year.”
LSU fell to the Lady Aggies, 5-2, earlier this season.
“We are really pumped up to play Texas A&M,” Minnis said. “We played them earlier in the year, so we know what kind of environment we will be heading into. I think that we are a better team now.”
The winner of LSU and Texas A&M will face the California/Army winner in the second round of the tournament.
The LSU men’s tennis team travels an hour east on Interstate-10 to face No. 56 South Alabama (19-7). The match is scheduled for 3 p.m. tomorrow at Tulane.
This also is the ninth-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for the LSU men’s tennis team.
“There are goals involved,” said men’s coach Jeff Brown. “We’ve had these goals from the beginning of the season. We’ve been off [for three weeks], but our goals and our focus haven’t changed.”
South Alabama won its sixth straight Sun Belt conference championship this season, but LSU leads the all-time series with the Jaguars, 6-0.
The winner of LSU and South Alabama will face the Tulane/Southern winner in the second round of the regional.
“I think we’ve improved a lot since the last match we’ve played,” Brown said. “I think we had gotten to a point where we needed a break, just to get fresher. And I think everybody’s jumped a level since the regular season ended.”