Alabama Women?s Tennis Downs LSU, 5-2
4/8/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
BATON ROUGE, La. ?? The Alabama women’s tennis team found itself in a closer-than-expected battle on the road Friday afternoon with the LSU Tigers. In the end, however, Alabama (9-8, 5-4 SEC) pulled out yet another close victory, defeating the Tigers 5-2.
The match wasn’t decided until Alabama’s Shelley Godwin completed a 7-5, 6-3 straight-set victory over Camila Caliari at No. 5 singles to clinch the Tide’s fifth conference win of the season. Until then, Alabama had to fight off a feisty LSU team that was seeking just its second SEC win of the season.
“We had different people step up again today and it’s a testament to the development of this team,” Alabama senior Robin Stephenson said.
Stephenson won for the 22nd time this season to push Alabama ahead 2-0 in the match, but LSU quickly picked up a win at No. 6 singles and then the Tiger’s Marina Chiarelli upset Alabama’s Ashley Bentley at No. 2 to even the dual-match at 2-2. That’s when the Tide once again turned to several unsung heroes to close out the win.
The Tide needed to win two of the final three matches down the stretch to pull out the win, but all three Alabama players, Shelley Godwin, Natalie McElveen and Mari Muller, pulled through in the clutch.
“Shelley, Natalie and Mari all came through for us,” Alabama student-assistant Melissa Minor said. “Earlier in the season when it got close we weren’t always coming through with big shots like we have recently. We talked about drawing on our experiences and I feel like that’s what we saw happen today.”
Godwin and McElveen each fell behind in their opening sets. Godwin trailed Caliari 5-2 but stormed back to take the opening set 7-6(9-7). McElveen fought back and won a tiebreak as well, 7-6(7-2). From there, both players took control. Each jumped up a break early and rolled to 6-3 wins in the second set to clinch for Alabama.
“We were down on both of those courts,” Alabama head coach Jenny Mainz said. “I felt like if we lost those opening sets then we would have been in trouble. It’s a testament to our team on how they fought back to win. I think we gained a little confidence today with how we closed things out.”
The win gets Alabama back above .500 in the SEC at 5-4 and draws the Tide one step closer to clinching the SEC Western Division title. ??Bama is now set for a critical showdown with Arkansas in Fayetteville on Sunday that will most likely decide the Western Division race.
Match Results
#31 Alabama 5, #61 LSU 2
Singles competition
1. #14 Robin Stephenson (ALA) def. Mykala Hedberg (LSU) 6-2, 6-3
2. Marina Chiarelli (LSU) def. #79 Ashley Bentley (ALA) 6-2, 6-4
3. Mari Muller (ALA) def. Anastasiya Dubova (LSU) 6-1, 2-6, 7-5
4. Natalie McElveen (ALA) def. Lauren Seaman (LSU) 7-6 (7-2), 6-3
5. Shelley Godwin (ALA) def. Camila Caliari (LSU) 7-6 (9-7), 6-3
6. Daysi Espinal (LSU) def. Sofia Ayala (ALA) 6-4, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. #20 Ashley Bentley/Robin Stephenson (ALA) def. Mykala Hedberg/Tiffany
Tucker (LSU) 8-2
2. Marina Chiarelli/Anastasiya Dubova (LSU) def. Melissa Day/Natalie
McElveen (ALA) 9-8 (7-3)
3. Andrea Brenes/Mari Muller (ALA) def. Camila Caliari/Lauren Seaman
(LSU) 8-5
Match Notes:
Alabama 9-8 (5-4 SEC); National ranking #31
LSU 9-10 (1-8 SEC); National ranking #61
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (1,2,6,4,5,3)
