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Julia Scaringe Sell and Mike Sell having been working this season as co-head coaches for the LSU women's tennis team. They've brought a wealth of experience with them (see Part I).

LSU Co-Head Coaches Julia and Mike Sell
© Marcia Frost

Questions and Answers

Marcia Frost (MF): How tough is the SEC Conference?

Mike Sell (MS): Brutal would be the world I would use. The depth is incredible.

Julia Sell (JS): Last year alone you had 12 of the 14 teams make the NCAA tournament. The next conference even close was six. So, it was double any other conference. I'll tell you, the worst team in our conference is legitimately a top 35 ranked team.

The only reason we are not ranked higher is because we beat up on each other, but that's how good they are. Anybody can beat anyone.

MF: Is there any talk about changing the conference make up?

MS: The conference added Missouri and Texas A&M a couple of years ago. I don't think there's been any talk about adding - or subtracting.

JS: It's all based around football.

MF: I agree. Everything is based around football, and tennis gets stuck with it.

MS: Especially in the SEC.

JS: We have no light matches, and it makes us better. I think everybody is pushing everybody to improve. The stakes are higher. It's making the conference better.

It's a great thing for our team. Everybody - one through six - gets an unbelievable match. There's no fluff - there are no easy matches.