State Women's Tennis Hits The Road In Search Of Second Conference Win
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Mississippi State's 50th-ranked women's tennis team (8-2, 1-1 SEC) travels to Baton Rouge, La., Friday to face LSU (2-8, 0-2 SEC) in hopes of picking up the team's second conference victory on the year. Match time is slated for 3 p.m. CT.
The Lady Bulldogs are coming off a successful weekend in which they split a pair of home matches. MSU ousted No. 69 Kentucky last Friday, 5-2, to pick up its first SEC opening-match win since 2000. On Sunday; however, 19th-ranked Vanderbilt proved too much for State in a tough home loss, but the split was enough to move the Lady Bulldogs up twenty-two spots to No. 50 in the latest ITA Rankings.
Sophomore Natalia Mayuk leads the team in singles victories, with a 6-4 record this season. Meanwhile, teammate Danielle Terpko has also proved to be instrumental in this strong start to 2010. The freshman has a 5-3 record in singles, and has won four out of her last five contests.
LSU is coming off a tough 7-0 loss to Florida on Sunday. In that contest, the Tigers failed to take a match into the third set, while suffering through a sweep in doubles to a tough Florida team.
Mississippi State defeated LSU a season ago in an exciting 4-3 thriller over the then 16th-ranked Tigers. The Lady Bulldogs are also looking to go 2-1 in conference play for the first time since 2000.
Following Friday's match, MSU heads to Arkansas to take on the 15th-ranked Razorbacks. First serve is scheduled for Noon CT.