LSU’s Rocio Fantilli and Amana Mang will look to build upon their 5-0 start when the LSU women’s tennis team travels to Tallahasee, Fla. to take on Florida State.
The doubles team of Fantilli and Mang have yet to lose a match this year.
Coming off an 8-1doubles victory against SMU’s Svetlana Kouzmenko and Kit Carson, Mang said she’s looking to remain undefeated.
“We have a lot of confidence right now,” Mang said. “The way we’re playing, there isn’t a [doubles] team out there that can beat us right now.”
Mang said that regardless of their record, there is always something to improve on.
“We still have a lot to improve on,” Mang said. “But we work on that in practice everyday.”
Aside from their record, Fantilli said this match is about playing and proving themselves.
“We’re playing great,” Fantilli said, “But we don’t think about it too much. We just play.”
LSU’s last meeting with FSU ended with a 4-3 loss last year in Baton Rouge.
FSU is coming off a 6-1 loss to No. 2 ranked Florida.
“It’s going to be tough,” coach Tony Minnis said. “On a given day, anybody can beat anybody, as we saw at SMU.”
LSU fell to the Lady Mustangs on Wednesday, 5-2.
Aside from FSU’s No. 62 ranking, Minnis said the Seminoles are a better team than its record shows.
“They’re a lot better [than their ranking shows],” Minnis said. “They’re actually pretty good.”
With their second match on the road in one week, Mang said playing on different courts can be difficult.
“It’s not so much the crowd, but the courts are different,” Mang said. “They were a lot faster at SMU.”
“You’re just used to your own courts and your own speed, but when you go away, it’s a little different.”
FSU has beaten LSU in two of their last three matches.
The Lady Tigers have not defeated FSU since 2001, winning in Baton Rouge 4-3.
“They’re a good team,” Mang said. “We’ve lost to them the last couple of years we played them. After the loss to SMU, we’re really fired up.”
Heading into the weekend, Minnis said that the team needs to do a better job of staying focused.
“We were a little overconfident [against SMU],” Minnis said.”The biggest thing that we have to learn is that when we have success, how to handle the success and keep moving forward.”