LSU coach Julia Sell can’t believe it’s already November.
With the end of the semester nearing, the Lady Tigers travel to Tuscaloosa, Ala., this weekend to compete in the Roberta Alison Fall Classic — their final tournament of the fall season.
The post-Halloween tournament begins today as six of LSU’s seven players look to fine-tune their racquets in their last fall event. Junior Mary Jeremiah traveled with the Lady Tigers but is sidelined due to injury.
Sell looks forward to a strong finish to the fall season in a tournament that focuses on individual improvement rather than calculating team scores.
“The flow of the year is to just get better with every tournament,” Sell said. “We’re going to have a lot of high-level competition that’s new to us so it’s going to just push us a little bit harder. But I want to see them continue to improve. That’s the biggest thing, always.”
The Lady Tigers join five Southeastern Conference opponents and four schools in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association top 20, led by No. 10 Michigan.
Tournament host Alabama is the highest-ranked SEC team at the event at No. 11 while No. 13 Clemson features the No. 7 singles player in Yana Koroleva.
LSU senior Ariel Morton and sophomore Ella Taylor pair up again in doubles after playing together for the first time two weeks ago at the ITA Southern Regionals.
The Lady Tiger pairing will have a tough go as the doubles draw includes Michigan’s No. 3 duo of Brooke Bolender and Emina Bektas and Vanderbilt’s No. 6 couple Courtney Colton and Lauren Mira.
Morton, the team’s lone senior, said the fall semester has been an enjoyable one. Not knowing what to expect when four new athletes entered the program in August, Morton is pleasantly surprised with the young Lady Tigers.
“There’s so many new faces,” Morton said. “Being a senior, I’ve been through a lot of teams and somehow this is the closest team yet as far as relationship-wise. We all get along super well and we all have a lot of fun. It is exciting.”
The newcomers have performed well for LSU, winning a combined 13 of 23 singles matches played this fall.
Although it is autumn, the fresh talent showcased by the Lady Tigers resembles a revitalization much like spring’s months.
The seeds of potential were planted this summer when Sell brought in the No. 14 recruiting class. Watching them grow over the last few months, Sell said she can’t wait to see the Lady Tigers in full blossom in spring 2014.
“When you have a lot of freshmen they’re constantly learning so we’ve had a lot of laughter,” Sell said. “But they’re really working hard, I’m really proud of ‘em as a whole. The improvement I’ve seen already is kind of just exciting for me as a coach and for us as a staff.”