Women's Tennis . March 16, 2025

Gamecocks Fall to No. 9 LSU

BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 25 South Carolina women’s tennis team took an early lead and battled to the very end in a nearly four-hour match against No. 9 LSU but ultimately fell 3-4 to the Tigers after four singles matches went to third sets.

The Gamecocks got off to a hot start in doubles starting with a dominant 6-1 victory that ended on a forced error commanded by Bella Bergkvist Larsson who was paired with Olympe Lancelot. The two notched a significant ranked win, topping No. 25 Tilwith Di Girolami and Anita Sahdiieva. Helena Buchwald and Lauren Friedman used the early momentum to secure the doubles point for the Gamecocks with a 6-4 win.

The Tigers found their rhythm at the start of singles, picking up first set wins on four courts. LSU then evened out the score to 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-4 win from court 4 over Misa Malkin. Buchwald (6-1, 7-6) and Lancelot (6-4, 6-3) regained the lead after both winning in straight sets, pushing the score to 3-1. After dropping their opening sets, Larsson, Kaitlyn Carnicella and Sarah Hamner bounced back to even their matches out and trigger deciding sets. Carnicella fought hard but ultimately fell in her third set which got the Tigers within one point of the Gamecocks.

The next move in the match came down to Larsson and Hamner who were playing in third sets. Both matches started out tight, exchanging games back and forth on both courts before Hamner jumped ahead to lead by 4-2. The Tigers didn’t let up and leveled both matches at 4-4 on Hamner’s court and 5-5 on Larsson’s before taking the lead on both within seconds of each other.

LSU tied up the match to 3-all as Anita Sahdiieva surged ahead to claim the final two consecutive games and defeat Larsson 7-5 in the final set. All eyes fell to Hamner’s court where she was 5-5 in the decider against Cadence Brace. After fighting to a deuce, the senior claimed the next game to edge Brace. Hamner had the chance to close it out as she was leading 6-5 but the Tiger won on a deuce to force a tiebreak.

Brace jumped to a 2-0 lead, but the Gamecock was able to retaliate fast and close the gap to 2-all. The two held their ground throughout the tiebreak as neither led by more than one point until Brace used the last of her efforts to top Hamner 8-6 in the end.

The Gamecocks return home next weekend to host Oklahoma on Fri., March 21 at 5:00 p.m.

For the latest South Carolina women’s tennis information, continue to follow GamecocksOnline.com or the team on social media (@GamecockWTennis).

(25) South Carolina 3, (9) LSU 4

Doubles (order of finish: 2,3)

#36 Kaitlyn Carnicella/Sarah Hamner (SC) led #11 Cadence Brace/Kayla Cross (LSU) 5-4, unfinished
Olympe Lancelot/Bella Bergkvist Larsson (SC) def. #25 Tilwith Di Girolami/Anita Sahdiieva (LSU) 6-1
Helena Buchwald/Lauren Friedman (SC) def. Kenna Erickson/Gaby Rivera (LSU) 6-4

Singles (order of finish: 4,6,3,2,5,1)