BATON ROUGE – The Northwestern State women's tennis team found tough sledding Saturday as they were unable to secure a point in their 7-0 loss to one of the nation's best in No. 19 LSU.

Doubles competition began at 11 a.m. with LSU racing out to a quick 1-0 lead, quickly taking the first and third positions matches.

Sophomores Iryna Vardanian and Polina Mutel squared off against Joana Valle Costa and Ryann Foster, the No. 27 doubles team in the nation. This was Mutel's first action since the Rice Invitational in the fall, but she slid right back into her spot of the top doubles pairing with Vardanian. Costa and Foster took advantage of Mutel's time off from competition, taking the second doubles point for the Tigers with a 6-2 victory.

In singles, NSU faced equally tough matchups as all matches were decided in the second set.

As expected, junior Polina Ivanova slid into the No. 1 singles position to start the season. She had the most tightly contested match of the day, falling just short to Costa 7-5, 6-4.

The Lady Demons will travel south once again next weekend, where they will take on Tulane in New Orleans on Jan. 28.

Singles competition:

Joana Valle Costa (LSU) def. Polina Ivanova 7-5, 6-4
Jade Lewis (LSU) def. Iryna Vardanian 6-1, 6-3
#83 Ryann Foster (LSU) def. Polina Mutel 6-0, 6-0
Jessica Golovin (LSU) def. Vladislava Litvinova 6-2, 6-3
Becca Weissmann (LSU) def. Emilija Dancetovic 6-0, 6-1
Skylar Holloway (LSU) def. Kateryna Avram 6-0, 6-0

Doubles competition:

#27 Joana Valle Costa/Ryann Foster (LSU) def. Iryna Vardanian/Polina Mutel 6-2
Jade Lewis/Becca Weissmann (LSU) vs. Polina Ivanova/Emilija Dancetovic 4-3, unfinished
Skylar Holloway/Jessica Golovin (LSU) def. Kateryna Avram/Vladislava Litvinova 6-1

Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (6,3,5,2,4,1)