Whether it was the wave of heat that hit Baton Rouge or the threat of losing a fourth-straight match, something sparked a flame with the Lady Tigers in their 4-2 defeat of Tulane on Wednesday afternoon.
Looking up at the scoreboard, LSU coach Julia Sell didn’t like what she saw with a 2-0 deficit to the Green Wave (4-18). A loss wasn’t how the Lady Tigers wanted to start their five-match home stand to end the 2014 regular season.
But LSU (10-10, 2-8 Southeastern Conference) stormed back to take four unanswered points, snap a three-match losing streak and even its record at 10-10.
“Very dramatic start,” Sell said. “We didn’t play well in doubles. … We made it interesting there, but we kind of gave away that doubles point and created a monster for ourselves starting in singles.”
The Lady Tigers were forced to sacrifice their second point when freshman Joana Vale Costa retired for the second straight match with knee pain.
Junior Noel Scott won the first set for LSU, 6-0, en route to defeating the Green Wave’s Ipek Birol 6-0, 6-3 to tie the match at 2-2 and snap a three-match losing streak of her own. Later, sophomore Ella Taylor clinched the victory for the Lady Tigers with her 6-4, 6-1 win against Tulane’s Meredith Maltby.
“We’ve been working hard with [Scott] the last few weeks trying to just get her back to playing aggressively,” Sell said. “She’s played some really tight matches all season and lost a little bit of confidence somewhere in the middle of it. … She did a great job today.”
A possible cause of Wednesday’s slow start could be fatigue, Sell said. For many of LSU’s freshmen, adjusting to a rigorous SEC schedule has been a challenge.
That test won’t get any easier for the Lady Tigers either as they welcome No. 45 Tennessee and No. 2 Georgia to W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium on Friday and Sunday, respectively.
LSU sophomore Ella Taylor serves the ball Wednesday, April 2, 2014 during a match against Tulane in W.T. "Dub" Robinson Stadium.
