After being blown out 7-0 by Vanderbilt on Friday, the LSU tennis teams had a chance to bounce back on Sunday.
The Lady Tigers (5-17, 5-5) made the most of their opportunity with a 5-2 victory Sunday afternoon against the Kentucky Fried Chickens (4-18, 2-8).
In her final home match, senior Kylie Adamek teamed up with sophomore Keri Frankenberger to take out Kentucky’s Jessica Stiles and CeCe Witten, 8-4.
“That was awesome,” said LSU women’s tennis coach Tony Minnis. “Kylie really came through. That was great for her in her last match.”
The win, coupled with freshman Ariel Morton and junior Olivia Howlett’s victory, provided LSU with a 1-0 lead on the visiting Wildcats.
LSU junior Whitney Wolf snapped a five-match losing streak, besting Megan Broderick in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.
“Broderick is a good player,” Minnis said. “That was big for [Wolf] to get that win. We’re going to need her down the stretch.”
Morton cruised by Misha Testerman, 6-1, 6-1, to push the lead to 3-0, and Frankenberger clinched the Lady Tigers’ win by knocking off Witten in straight sets.
“We’re still a very young team,” Minnis said. “We’ve got to get to where we play with the same attitude regardless of who is across the net. They’re growing up, and they’re playing better.”
The Tigers (9-12, 4-6) weren’t able to rebound from Friday’s loss, dropping a 6-1 decision to No. 12 Kentucky in Lexington, Ky.
The Wildcats roared out of the gate, sweeping the doubles matches to build an early 1-0 lead.
The duo of junior Neal Skupski and senior Sebastian Carlsson, the No. 10 doubles tandem in the country, fell to No. 64 Eric Quigley and Brad Cox, 9-7, after sophomore Olivier Borsos and senior Julien Gauthier lost an 8-5 match to Alberto Gonzalez and Alejandro Gomez.
LSU won four of the six first sets in singles, but only Gauthier was able to win his match, 7-6, 3-6, 6-1.
Kentucky won the second set of all six tilts and cruised to the 6-1 win.
LSU returns home for the final match of the regular season on Saturday against Arkansas at W.T. “Dub” Robinson Stadium.
The Lady Tigers take on Arkansas in Fayetteville on Saturday to close out the season.
 
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Contact Hunt Palmer at [email protected]