Kentucky womens tennis falls 4-2 to LSU on senior day

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Carter Skaggs

Kentucky Wildcats senior Florencia Urrutia and sophomore Lidia Gonzalez take a water break between sets on the bench during the Kentucky vs. Alabama womens tennis match on Sunday, April 2, 2023, at Boone Tennis Complex in Lexington, Kentucky. Alabama won 4-1. Photo by Carter Skaggs | Staff

Natalia Kozlowski, Contributor

On Sunday, Kentucky womens tennis (12-13, 4-9 SEC) fell 4-2 to the LSU Tigers at the Boone Tennis Complex in Lexington, Kentucky, for the team’s senior day.

Before the game, the Wildcats honored three senior student-athletes: Florencia Urrutia, Maialen Morante and Carlota Molina in a pre-match ceremony.

The Tigers grabbed the doubles point with a 6-1 victory on the top two courts to start the outdoor action.

Following the start of the single matches, both teams were compelled to move indoors to complete the matches due to poor weather.

The Tigers strengthened their advantage over the Wildcats with wins at third singles from Safiya Carrington and first singles from No. 10 Anastasiya Komar.

The Wildcats eventually got on the board with Zoe Hammond’s 6-4, 6-2 victory over Nikita Vishwase. This was Hammond’s ninth singles victory of her freshman year’s dual season.

Junior Elizabeth Stevens put up a remarkable effort in second singles, losing the first set in a tiebreaker, but then bouncing back with a 6-2 win in the second set.

Stevens went on to beat Kylie Collins, a top-25 opponent, in a third set tiebreaker to pull the Wildcats within one point of the Tigers.

Unfortunately for Kentucky, it was not enough to come back and win against the Tigers, as the next match saw Nine Geissler defeat Kentucky’s Lidia Gonzalez in a hard-fought three-set battle to secure the win for LSU.

The loss to LSU concludes the regular season for the Wildcats. The team will now prepare for the SEC tournament at the University of Arkansas on April 19-23.