It was Friday the 13th, and for University of Alabama women’s tennis, it faced a scary situation. The team was looking to improve on its 1-10 conference record, and get its first home victory in SEC play.

Neither happened. Alabama fell to LSU 4-3 in a hard fought battle Friday night which pushed its record to 14-14 on the year. 

Coach Jenny Mainz has stressed to her team that they need to get off to better starts early on the match. The team seemed to receive her message Friday.

Sophomores Luca Fabian and Kimberley Gintrand got things started early for the Crimson Tide, as they were the first duo to win a doubles match. LSU bounced back and won the second match leaving it up to Andie Daniell and Ann Selim to secure the point for Alabama. However, Daniell and Selim lost 7-5 which gave LSU the early 1-0 lead.

“We made a couple of changes to our doubles which I felt would help us get going early because we’ve struggled with doubles all this spring,” Mainz said. “Throughout the match, you can’t get too high and you can’t get too low”.

When it was time for singles, Alabama came out winning two straight matches led by freshman Kylie Moulin who swept her opponent 6-0. Moulin’s victory marked her first SEC win.

“Given that this was my first SEC win it feels good to get one under my belt, I haven’t won a match in awhile so this was good for my confidence,” Moulin said. “Everyday I come out here, I’m always looking to get better.”

Later on in singles, Daniell won her match to tie things up at three a piece. However, LSU would win the final match in singles to give them a narrow 4-3 victory.

“Our conference is arguably one of the toughest in women’s tennis, week in and week out everybody is beating each other up,” Mainz said. “I keep telling the team there’s a reason why our eyes are in the front of our head and not the back, we have to keep looking forward”.