March 23, 2007

BATON ROUGE, La. — The South Carolina women’s tennis team scored its fourth consecutive win Friday by edging LSU 4-3 in Baton Rouge, La. The Gamecocks improved to 12-3 overall with the victory and moved to 4-1 in the Southeastern Conference, while the Tigers saw their record dip to 8-6 and 1-4 in league play.

LSU’s top doubles team of Megan Falcon and Mykala Hedberg upended Carolina’s No. 18-ranked duo of Gira Schofield and Ana Marija Zubori 8-4 to begin the day. The Gamecocks responded with Christyn Lucas and Natasa Vuckovic winning 8-4 over Hannah Robinson and Staten Spencer on court 2. Laura Ganzer and Megan McGavock gave South Carolina a 1-0 lead when they upended Anastasiya Dubova and Tiffany Tucker 9-8 in the final match at the No. 3 position.

Dubova tied the match at 1-1 when she defeated Ganzer 6-4, 6-1 at six singles, but Vuckovic put Carolina back on top thanks to a 6-4, 7-5 win against Nicole Kantor at three. Zubori scored the next point for the Gamecocks, downing Hedberg in three sets 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 at the second slot for her team-leading 25th win of the season.

The Tigers continued to battle, closing the margin to 3-2 after Robinson won a three-set match over McGavock on court 5 by scores of 4-6, 7-5, 6-0. Lucas gave South Carolina its 12th victory of the year when she grinded out a 6-3, 7-5 decision versus Spencer at No. 4 singles. Lucas actually trailed 5-3 in the second set before winning four straight games.

With the team result decided, Schofield and No. 2-ranked Falcon were still playing in a third set. Schofield won the first set in a tiebreaker despite falling behind 3-0, but Falcon stole the second after allowing Schofield to come back from a 4-1 deficit. In the final stanza, Falcon managed to win 6-1 to make the final score 4-3.

South Carolina next faces Arkansas on Sunday at noon ET in Fayetteville, Ark.

#34 South Carolina (12-3, 4-1 SEC) def. #32 LSU (8-6, 1-4 SEC), 4-3

Singles
1. #2 Megan Falcon, LSU, def. #118 Gira Schofield, USC, 6-7, 7-6, 6-1
2. Ana Marija Zubori, USC, def. Mykala Hedberg, LSU, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1
3. #125 Natasa Vuckovic, USC, def. Nicole Kantor, LSU, 6-4, 7-5
4. Christyn Lucas, USC, def. Staten Spencer, LSU, 6-3, 7-5
5. Hannah Robinson, LSU, def. Megan McGavock, USC, 4-6, 7-5, 6-0
6. Anastasiya Dubova, LSU, def. Laura Ganzer, USC, 6-4, 6-1

Order of finish: 6, 3, 2, 5, 4, 1

Doubles
1. Falcon/Hedberg, LSU, def. #18 Schofield/Zubori, USC, 8-4
2. Lucas/Vuckovic, USC, def. Robinson/Spencer, LSU, 8-4
3. Ganzer/McGavock, USC, def. Dubova/Tiffany Tucker, LSU, 9-8

Order of finish: 1, 2, 3