WTEN Central: Lady Vols vs. #21 Texas A&M/#15 LSU

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The 33^rd-ranked Tennessee women's tennis team rounds out its homestand this weekend with a pair of conference matches against top 25 squads.

The Lady Vols (10-3, 0-1 SEC) take on No. 21 Texas A&M on Friday before closing out the weekend on Sunday against LSU. Both matches are scheduled to start at 12 p.m.

Texas A&M and LSU have each registered impressive starts to the season.

The Aggies (14-1, 2-0) compiled a 12-1 non-conference record that featured eight shutout victories. In its first two conference matches, Texas A&M defeated Auburn, 4-2, and Alabama, 4-0. Both of those matches took place in College Station.

LSU (12-2, 2-0) also boasts an undefeated conference record through two matches, with the wins also coming against Alabama and Auburn and also both being home matches for the Tigers.

In non-conference competition, the Tigers advanced to ITA National Indoor Championships out of the Tallahassee regional, which came by way of a hard-fought 4-1 win over Tennessee. The Lady Vols won the doubles point, but the Tigers grabbed three close singles win to edge out Tennessee.

In the match, Tennessee's No. 1 doubles team of Sadie Hammond and Kaitlin Staines upset the 2018 NCAA doubles champions and current No. 3 ranked doubles pair in the nation, Jessica Golovin and Eden Richardson by a score of 6-4.

Hammond and Staines ascended to No. 8 in this week's doubles rankings update, while in singles, Hammond made her season debut at No. 65.

Tennessee is coming off of a weekend doubleheader in which it dropped its SEC opener to No. 2 Georgia, 4-0, before taking down in-state foe Chattanooga, 7-0.

Admission is free for all matches this season, and parking is available in Lot N-12, which is located at the corner of Lake Avenue and Volunteer Boulevard. For the most up-to-date information about the Tennessee women's tennis program, follow @Vol_WTennis on Twitter.

SERIES HISTORY: Tennessee holds an all-time 28-17 advantage over LSU and narrowly trails in the all-time series with Texas A&M, 8-6. Additionally, Tennessee is 12-6 all-time against LSU in Knoxville.

SEC IN THE RANKINGS: The SEC placed 11 of 14 schools in the ITA's newest set of team rankings on Wednesday. Including this weekend's pair of matches, Tennessee's next four matches will all be against top 50 teams. The Lady Vols travel to Columbia to take on South Carolina on March 15 before heading to Gainesville to face Florida two days later on March 17.

DOUBLES DOMINATION: Tennessee's doubles accomplishments have not been limited to just the success of eighth-ranked duo Sadie Hammond and Kaitlin Staines. As a team, Tennessee has won the doubles point in 11 of its 13 matches this season.

At the Lady Vols' No. 2 doubles spot, Tenika McGiffin and Maia Haumuller have won six of their past seven matches. Rebeka Mertena and Johanna Silva have won five of their past six matches at the Lady Vols' No. 3 doubles spot.

RANKED COMPETITION: This weekend's pair of matches will feature three ranked singles players and three ranked doubles teams. The ranked singles player and doubles teams are listed below.

Singles
No. 15 Eden Richardson (LSU)
No. 65 Sadie Hammond (UT)
No. 100 Jayci Goldsmith (TAMU)

Doubles
No. 3 Golovin/Richardson (LSU)
No. 8 Hammond/Staines (UT)
No. 31 Goldsmith/Makarova (TAMU)

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Players Mentioned

Sadie Hammond

Maia Haumuller

Tenika McGiffin

Rebeka Mertena

Johanna Silva

Kaitlin Staines

University of Tennessee Athletics