Women’s Tennis Fall to No. 13 Texas A&M 6-1; Dekkers Earns Career-High Ranked Singles Win – LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. – Junior Florentine Dekkers earned the highest ranked singles win of her collegiate career, defeating the No. 14-ranked Nicole Khirin in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, as the LSU women’s tennis team (11-8, 3-6 SEC) suffered a 6-1 defeat to the No. 13 Texas A&M Aggies (16-6, 8-1 SEC) on Friday night at the LSU Tennis Complex.

Taylor’s Thoughts
“Huge credit to Texas A&M tonight,” head coach Taylor Fogleman said. “They’ve been at the top of our conference these past few years for a reason, and they showed just why. I thought that we put ourselves in some good situations at times tonight, but we couldn’t finish them and apply the pressure at times that we needed to and because of that we ultimately fell behind in a gap that we couldn’t get out of.”

“It was a spirited effort from the ladies, who had to battle through some illnesses and an injury during the match so we’re super proud of them for that. We’re hopeful this is the worst of what we have to endure in terms of illnesses and injury this season and we’ll hopefully get some much-needed rest and recovery this Easter weekend ahead of next week’s challenging road matches.”

Doubles Results
The Aggies opened doubles by taking the No. 3 court after Sydney Fitch and Nicole Khirin defeated Gaby Rivera and Maya Tahan by a score of 6-3.

Texas A&M clinched the doubles point and took a 1-0 lead in the match when Lucciana Perez and Jeanette Mireles defeated Florentine Dekkers and Aran Teixidó Garcia at the No. 2 spot. The two teams battled it out in a back-and-forth match, but the Aggies were able to finish with consecutive games won to secure a 6-4 victory.

Singles Results
Daria Smetannikov earned the first singles point of the night and made the scoreline 2-0 in favor of the Aggies after defeating Emma Grant at the No. 6 court. The Aggie player took the first set, 6-2, and repeated the scoreline in the second to clinch a straight set win.

The lead was extended to 3-0 after Mireles defeated Kenna Erickson at the No. 5 spot. Mireles won the first set by a margin of 6-2 and only dropped one game in the second as she won 6-1.

LSU’s lone point of the night came at the No. 2 court, where Dekkers defeated No. 14 Khirin in straight sets. Dekkers held a narrow lead throughout the first set and finished strong to claim a 6-4 win. The second set was another tight one as they split eight games at 4-4, but Dekkers finished strong by winning the final two games to repeat the 6-4 scoreline and secure her court. The win is Dekkers’ second consecutive ranked win and the highest of her collegiate career thus far. Her dual season win total improved to seven with the win and she is currently on a three-match winning streak.

Texas A&M clinched team victory at the top singles court, where the No. 1-ranked singles player in the country Mary Stoiana defeated Teixidó Garcia in straight sets. Stoiana fended off multiple deuce points in the first set and won 6-3 before defeating Teixidó Garcia 6-1 in the second set to make it 4-1 on the night and clinch a road victory for her team.

The remaining matches played out and the Aggies stretched the lead to 5-1 after Perez defeated Tahan at the No. 4 spot. Perez pulled away after a back and forth start with Tahan in the first set, winning 6-3 and then repeating that 6-3 scoreline in the second set.

The final point of the night came from the No. 3 court, where No. 36 Mia Kupres defeated Anita Sahdiieva. Kupres opened the match with a 6-2 win in the first set and came from behind in the second to grab a 7-5 win to hand Sahdiieva her first singles defeat of the dual season. The win from Kupres finalized the team score on the night at 6-1 in favor of the visiting Aggies.

Up Next
LSU will travel for one final road weekend in the regular season, opening with a match at Arkansas at 6 p.m. CT on Friday, April 5.

Follow Us
For more information on the LSU women’s tennis program follow the Tigers on Twitter @lsuwten , on Instagram @LSUWTen , and on www.Facebook.com/lsuwten.

LSU vs. Texas A&M
Mar 29, 2024
LSU Tennis Complex

#13 Texas A&M 6, #39 LSU 1

Singles

  1. #1 Mary Stoiana (TAMU) def. Aran Teixido Garcia (LSU) 6-3, 6-1
  2. Florentine Dekkers (LSU) def. #14 Nicole Khirin (TAMU) 6-4, 6-4
  3. #36 Mia Kupres (TAMU) def. Anita Sahdiieva (LSU) 6-2, 7-5
  4. Lucciana Perez (TAMU) def. Maya Tahan (LSU) 6-3, 6-3
  5. Jeanette Mireles (TAMU) def. Kenna Erickson (LSU) 6-2, 6-1
  6. Daria Smetannikov (TAMU) def. Emma Grant (LSU) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles

  1. Kenna Erickson/Anita Sahdiieva (LSU) vs. #5 Mary Stoiana/Mia Kupres (TAMU) 5-4, unfinished
  2. Lucciana Perez/Jeanette Mireles (TAMU) def. Florentine Dekkers/Aran Teixido Garcia (LSU) 6-4
  3. Sydney Fitch/Nicole Khirin (TAMU) def. Gaby Rivera/Maya Tahan (LSU) 6-3

Match Notes:
Texas A&M 16-6, 8-1 SEC; National ranking #13
LSU 11-8, 3-6 SEC; National ranking #39
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (6,5,2,1,4,3)
Official: Richie Weaver T-2:48 A-99

Reference

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