Both the No. 12 LSU women’s tennis team and the No. 37 LSU men’s team defended their home court on Friday, as the Lady Tigers defeated No. 37 Arizona, 4-2, and the men outlasted No. 75 North Florida, 4-3.
Just a few hours after the official opening of the new LSU Tennis Complex, the Lady Tigers opened the day claiming the doubles point, winning court 2 and 3, 6-0 and 7-5, respectively.
With momentum on her side, LSU senior Skylar Kuykendall continued to dominate in singles, defeating Wildcat senior Shayne Austin, 6-1 and 6-4.
“We just wanted to play really aggressive in doubles and have a match go our way and play it in our terms. When we play well in doubles it translates for Abby and me into singles.”
But the first set turned out to be a tougher test for LSU’s No. 20 junior Joana Vale Costa. The Lisbon, Portugal native’s battle against Wildcats’ No. 54 Lauren Marker went back and forth, but eventually ended in LSU’s favor, 7-6.
Vale Costa would go on to dominate the second set, 6-0.
On court 5, senior Ella Taylor, who played a key role in taking the doubles point for the Lady Tigers, was struggling until the start of the second set, as well. After losing the first set 2-6, Taylor built off of Arizona senior Samantha Czarniak’s errors to win force a third and winning the court, 2-6, 6-2 and 6-4.
“I thought they both played a little tentative in their first sets,” said LSU co-head coach Julia Sell. “Then, in their second sets, they calmed down a little bit and started hitting the ball. I know they had a little trouble seeing on the far side when the sun was setting there and I think that threw them off a little bit.”
The men’s match on the other hand, was not decided until the last set.
While LSU claimed the doubles point and delivered a blowout on courts 1 and 4, where junior Jordan Daigle won in two sets, 6-2 and 6-1, and sophomore Gabor Csonka only allowed one single point in the second set, the Tigers relied on senior Andrew Korinek and freshman Nikola Samardzic for a deciding final win.
“We made it a little more difficult on ourselves,” said LSU head coach Jeff Brown.” We didn’t play good in a couple spots today and it was very strange match. You got down to the two three setters very quickly. A lot of pressure was put on a freshman. You don’t want that, but luckily our senior came through.”
Korinek’s win in three sets over North Florida junior Zach Goldberg ended the men’s first game of the weekend, who now prepare for Sunday’s doubleheader against Stetson and Lamar University.
“We’re going to see what we have to work on,” Brown said. “It should be pretty obvious in a couple spots. We’re going to keep building on the positives and try to get as much confidence as we can into our next match.”
You can reach Markus Hufner on Twitter @Hufner_TDR 

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Wingate Jones

LSU senior Andrew Korinek plays a doubles match with freshman Cameron Andry during LSU's 4-3 victory against the University of North Florida on Friday, Feb. 26, 2016 at the LSU Tennis Complex