The Ragin’ Cajuns women’s tennis season is in full swing. The team was recently at regionals and will compete in their final fall set of matches next month. The Ragin’ Cajuns Invitational will take place from Nov. 5-6.
Last season, Floriane Picaut and Clara Mantaux were named to the All-Sun Belt Conference Second Team for doubles. As a duo, they competed as a No. 1 doubles pair, finishing 8-2, including five conference wins. They had the third-highest winning percentage among doubles pairs in the Sun Belt Conference.
Picaut also earned a spot on the All-Sun Belt Conference Second Team for singles. At No.1 singles competition, Picaut had a 5-3 record.
In addition to SBC honors, Picaut was named to the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Women’s Tennis Second- Team. Picaut has now graduated.
It’s now time for other Ragin’ Cajuns to step up for the team, and they did just that in their opening game this season.
Louisiana opened up their fall season in a big way. The team secured five doubles match wins and an even more impressive 11 singles match wins.
The season started with three doubles wins. Most impressive was a 6-2 win by the pair of Lucie Raquin and Carla Urchoeguia over Georgia Southern’s Hannah Daniel and Paula Hijos. Two more Louisiana duos picked up wins as well. The duo of AK Harvey and Nikol Dobrilova won, as did the pair of Lana Brezanin and Catarina Zheng.
A newcomer for Louisiana, Tanisha Kashyap earned a big win in singles play by, defeating Georgia Southern’s Hijos, 6-1, 6-0. Other singles wins included Urchoeguia, Momoko Yoshimura, Dobrilova, Harvey and Zheng.
The team proved they could win in both doubles and single play. They continued this mindset into the next day.
On the next day of play Raquin and Urchoeguia defeated Chattanooga’s Callie Billman and Jessie Young. Another doubles pair, Angel Santiago and Brezanin beat Chattanooga’s Jada Young and Wilma Bergqvist, 6-2.
Again in singles play, Urchoeguia and Dobrilova continued their win streak with 6-2, 6-4 wins over opponents from Chattanooga. Harvey then took down Lily Holmes of Chattanooga, 6-2, 6-2.
The team is smaller than most Cajun teams, but that helps build the chemistry when it comes to doubles play. Outside of tennis, the team is actively involved in other community projects. Last month they helped out with Hurricane Ida relief.
The team also served as playing partners and opponents as part of a Friday Night Mixer hosted by the Youngsville Junior and Adult Tennis program last week.
A Facebook post about the event read, “A few pictures from our Friday Night Mixer feat the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Women’s Tennis team! Thank you to Coach Stephanie, Coach Alex, and the entire women’s team for coming out and playing! We can’t wait to have you all again, and to come support you this spring.”
Most recently at regionals they helped serve food at the 2021 Footprints Forever 5K and one mile event. With their active community efforts and strong gameplay, this team will continue winning on and off the court.
Story: Madelyn Myer