On senior day, the Mississippi State University women’s tennis team jumped out to an early lead, but was unable to close the deal, losing 4-2 to SEC foe LSU. The Bulldogs were able to pick up the doubles point for the first time in weeks. However, this accomplishment was not completed with any ease, starting on court three where the Bulldog tandem of Timea Guibe and Naomi Tran were ousted 8-5 by the opposing Tiger team of Skylar Holloway and Amanda Atanasson.
The Bulldogs would tie things up shortly when the Bulldogs’ top duo of Georgiana Patrasc and Martina Frantova were able to pull out the narrow victory 8-6 over Noel Scott and Joana Vale Costa of LSU.
The Bulldogs’ remaining duo of Jasmine Lee and Louise Ronaldson faced a 5-7 deficit against Skylar Kuykendall and Abbey Owens. The pair of Bulldogs fought from behind to tie the match 7-7, forcing a tie-breaker to claim the coveted doubles point. Taking the first four points of the tiebreaker, the Bulldogs played their way to a 7-1 victory, giving them the match.
Before starting the singles matches, a ten-minute ceremony was held in honor of the seniors involved with the women’s tennis team. Those honored included team manager Andy Lockard, volunteer assistant coach Petra Ferancova and senior Naomi Tran. Tran, over her career at MSU, accumulated 83 doubles as well as singles victories and was named an ITA Scholar-Athlete three times.
On court one, Jasmine Lee struggled early to match the play of her opponent Vale Costa, who came out ready to go. Costa would glide to a very quick 6-1 victory in the first set and an even faster 6-1 victory in the second set to get the first point for the Tigers on the day. The loss is only the third of the year for Lee in singles play.
Not long after, Patrasc would fall in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 to Kuykendall on court two. This gave the Tigers their first lead of the day, and from there they never really looked back, as they would continue to ramp up the pressure on the Bulldogs.
Ronaldson found herself in a tight affair on court three, but was unable to make the breakthrough in the first set, losing 7-5 to her adversary Owens. The second set would take a turn for the worse, as Ronaldson would eventually drop the match and the point to Owens, with a 6-1 loss of the second set. LSU now with the 3-2 advantage, would only need one point to claim victory.
The day’s contest would end up being decided by a very controversial call on court five, where Jennifer Brown and Ella Taylor were competing for their respected teams. Taylor had taken the first set 6-1 and held the 6-5 advantage in the second set, when in frustration Brown was penalized for slamming her racket on the court, which resulted in the end of the match, as the incident occurred before the match point and gave Taylor the point she needed to win the match. The final scoreline read 6-1, 7-5 in favor of Taylor.
With the 4-2 victory over MSU, LSU improved to 15-7  on the season.
Following the match, the players and coaching staff were not available for comment.
The Bulldogs will face the Auburn Tigers at the A.J Pitts Tennis Centre on Wednesday at 2 p.m.