CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Southeast Missouri women's tennis (0-2) travels to Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois for two weekend duals against Bradley and Northern Illinois at the Clubs at River City in the second week of the 2018 season.
The Redhawks face Bradley (0-0) on Friday at 6 p.m., CT and then take on Northern Illinois (0-0) Saturday at 9 a.m.
"We opened our season last weekend against two very tough opponents," head coach
Mary Beth Gunn said of starting 2018 versus Mizzou and Central Arkansas. "Our focus for this weekend is playing solid tennis and trying to continue to raise our game and our improvement. Our main concern is preparing ourselves for conference matches and we continue to do this every day."
Southeast dropped both meets at the Mizzou Tennis Complex this past weekend but received a massive doubles win from sophomore
Oleksandra Doroshenko and freshman
Alessandra Maya Thompson. Doroshenko and Maya Thompson registered the lone win for SEMO over the weekend with a 6-1 victory at the No. 2 position over Mizzou's #47-ranked (
Oracle/ITA National Doubles Rankings) doubles team of Serena Nash and Clare Raley.
Freshman
Kelly Sicha also made her Redhawks debut after joining the team at the start of the semester. Sicha competed in the fourth singles slot.
Bradley opens its 2018 spring season against Southeast on Friday. The Braves were selected to finish fourth in the Missouri Valley Conference this season after finishing as runner-ups to Southern Illinois at the 2017 MVC Team Championships with a 12-14 record (2-5 MVC). Bradley returns five members from last season's roster in seniors Alexa Brandt, Alejandra de Lasa and Aimee Manfredo, junior Malini Wijesinghe and sophomore Natalia Barbery.
Northern Illinois also starts their spring slate this week. The Huskies face Wisconsin on Thursday before weekend tilts against SEMO and Bradley. Seniors Evelyn Youel, Abigail Dekkinga and Michelle Erasmus lead the way for top NIU returnees. Dekkinga posted a 5-4 record in the fall, while Erasmus went 3-2 in her matches. The Huskies finished the 2017 season with a 10-13 record (4-4 Mid-American Conference) and fell in the first round of the conference tournament to Ball State.
