In a match that felt closer than the final score indicated, the LSU women's tennis team got past an inspired performance by Rice to take a 4-1 win in the Baton Rouge regional on Sunday at the LSU Tennis Complex.
The win moves 10th-seeded LSU (21-9) into a super regional matchup with No. 7 Virginia. The Tigers and Cavaliers will play in Charlottesville, Virginia, at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The super regional appearance will be the second straight for LSU. Virginia advanced out of its regional by defeating both St. Francis and Washington by scores of 4-0.
Against Rice (18-10), LSU picked up the doubles point with wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. Cadence Brace followed that with a straight-set win over Rice's Darya Schwartzman at No. 1 singles to give LSU a 2-0 overall lead before the match tightened up.
"The score did not indicate at all how competitive that match was throughout," LSU coach Taylor Fogleman said. "Rice pushed us in every which way. I knew that they would."
Rice earned its only point of the day with Ema Mravcova's 2-0 win over Kinaa Graham at No. 6 singles, leaving LSU with a 2-1 edge. Meanwhile, all four of the other matches split their first two sets as Rice refused to go away.
LSU ultimately made its way to four points with wins from Ella McDonald at No. 3 and Carolina Kuhl at No. 5. Both players won two straight sets after losing the first.
"It was a very tough match," said Kuhl, whose 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Nithesa Selvaraj clinched LSU's fourth point. "I felt like I had to get used to the conditions at the beginning of the match. It was not easy to play her. I managed that well in the second set, and I was just happy that I was able to come back and fight through it."
When the match ended, Rice led that match at No. 2 singles while LSU had the advantage at No. 4.
The fight displayed by Rice did not come as a surprise to Fogleman, who served as assistant to Rice coach Elizabeth Schmidt from 2014 to 2017.
"I knew that they would push us," Fogleman said. "That was my old boss, and I don't think anybody does much of a better job at getting their team ready to compete, especially at this time of year."
LSU opened the afternoon by taking the doubles point. The Tigers got a 6-2 win from Kenna Ericson and McDonald over Francesca Magunia and Mravcova at No. 2. Kuhl and Addison Lanton were next to finish when they beat Divna Ratkovic and Daniela Chica 6-4 at No. 3.
"If you can nudge yourself ahead (with the doubles point), I think it is very difficult to find four singles when you're playing very good teams," Fogleman said. "To get that point, and then to get a relatively quick win from Cadence at No. 1 (singles), it gave us a little bit of breathing room."