Editor’s Note: The following is an official press release courtesy of LSU’s athletics department.
BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU women’s tennis team (9-6, 2-5 SEC) will welcome the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs (14-3, 7-0 SEC) to the LSU Tennis Complex for an SEC match at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, March 31.
Friday’s theme is Faculty & Staff Appreciation Night, which is planned to honor members of LSU’s faculty and staff before the match. Additionally, fans are invited to participate in a meet and greet with the players and coaches following the conclusion of the match. Admission is free of charge for all home matches at the LSU Tennis Complex.
No. 4 Georgia (Mar. 31)
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Versus Georgia
LSU is seeking its fifth win in program history over the Bulldogs on Friday night. When the teams met last season in Georgia, the Bulldogs came out on top in a 4-1 contest.
The Bulldogs have only dropped three matches this season heading into Friday’s contest, losing twice to top ranked North Carolina (5-2 at North Carolina and 4-0 at ITA National Team Indoors) and the other loss coming on the road at then-No. 11 Ohio State, 4-0. Georgia has opened SEC play with a perfect 7-0 start and has won every conference match by three or more points.
Strong singles play has been key for Georgia this season as the Bulldogs have a record of 56-20 across all six singles spots, a 73.7% win ration. Their top two players, No. 8 Lea Ma and No. 10 Dasha Vidmanova, have a combined record of 23-3 at the top two singles court in dual play. Ma, a senior from Dix Hills, New York, is a perfect 7-0 in SEC play at the No. 1 singles court.
Tiger Tidbits
LSU dropped two away matches last time out, narrowly falling 4-3 at No. 11 Auburn on Friday and then dropping Sunday’s match at Alabama, 4-2.
Anastasiya Komar continues to lead from the front for the Tigers this spring in both singles and doubles play. In singles, she enters Friday match with a perfect 14-0 record in dual matches and has scored a point in all but one match this season. The Belarus native was moved to the top singles spot in conference play last week, where she marked the occasion with a straight set win over No. 32 Carolyn Ansari of Auburn and another straight set win over Alabama’s Loudmilla Bencheikh. In doubles, she has a team-leading 10-3 record in dual matches with four different partners.
Experienced seniors Safiya Carrington and Nina Geissler have enjoyed singles success in conference play, going 4-2 and 3-3 respectively. Carrington’s 14 singles wins on the overall season is the second most on the team while Geissler’s 12 ties her for third most.
Two Tigers are ranked in singles, and one doubles duo is ranked in the ITA rankings. In singles, Kylie Collins checked in at No. 22 while Anastasiya Komar joins her at No. 27. LSU’s leading doubles pair of Komar and freshman Nikita Vishwase moved to No. 30 after a few weeks of not playing together. As a team, LSU moved to No. 43 in this week’s ranking update.
LSU has earned the doubles point in 11 matches out of 15 this season and has a 27-11 record across the three courts. The No. 1 spot is 10-2, No. 2 narrowly trails at 8-3 and the No. 3 court has a record of 8-6.
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