CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Daniela Hlacikova,
Myroslava Zelenchuk and
Vivian Lai all notched singles wins as Southeast Missouri women's tennis (13-6, 5-2 OVC) was edged by Murray State (10-9, 3-3 OVC), 4-3, Tuesday afternoon at the John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex.
SEMO finished the 2022 Ohio Valley Conference regular season with a mark of 5-2 and will now await Saturday's seedings ahead of the 2022 OVC Championship Tournament scheduled for April 29 through May 1 at the Wesselman Tennis Center in Evansville, Indiana.
The top six teams qualify for the 2022 OVC Championship Tournament with the top two seeds earning byes.
The Redhawks are currently tied for second in the league with Belmont and hold the tiebreaker over the Bruins, having won the regular-season matchup, 6-1, on April 9 in Nashville, Tennessee.
Austin Peay tops the current conference standings at 5-0, wrapping up the OVC slate against Tennessee State Friday and at Murray State Saturday.
Murray State opened Tuesday's dual with the doubles point with wins at the second and first positions.
Annika Pschorr and Sarah Bureau beat
Teona Velkoska and
Daniela Hlacikova, 6-2, at No. 2 before Stasya Sharapova and Natalie Slezakova overcame
Romana Tarajova and
Ksenia Shikanova, 7-5, at the top slot.
Velkoska and Hlacikova pace the Redhawks in 2022 with a 12-3 mark including a 6-1 record in OVC matches.
When the competition switched to singles, SEMO knotted the dual at 1-1 with a win at the fifth flight.
Vivian Lai, a junior from Taipei, Taiwan, defeated Jordi Font Montero, 6-2, 6-1, to improve to 13-4 this season and 6-1 in league contests.
Gabrielle Geolier then beat
Teona Velkoska, 6-4, 6-3, at the sixth position to switch the lead to Murray State, 2-1.
Velkoska fashioned a 5-2 OVC record in 2022 and is 11-6 overall this season.
Hlacikova then won her fifth-straight singles match at the second spot to retie the match at 2-2.
The sophomore from Banská Bystrica, Slovakia, fought past Bureau with a tiebreaker, 7-6 (8-6), 6-3.
Hlacikova matched her OVC record of 6-1 earned in 2021 and is second on the Redhawks behind Lai with an overall mark of 12-6 this season.
The Racers then won the dual match with victories at the first and third lineup slots.
Sharapova fought past Tarajova, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, at the top singles position before Pschorr outlasted Shikanova at No. 3, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.
Shikanova has compiled a 12-7 overall mark this season heading into next week's 2022 OVC Championship Tournament.
At the fourth slot,
Myroslava Zelenchuk overcame Natalie Slezakova via third-set tiebreaker, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), to wrap up Tuesday's dual.
Zelenchuk, a freshman from Lviv, Ukraine, improved to 11-6 in 2022 and 5-2 in league matches after her fourth-straight singles win.
SEMO has registered five or more OVC wins in each of the past two seasons. The Redhawks have posted double-digit overall wins in each of the last three seasons (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic).
The Redhawks will make their 14th OVC Tournament appearance in program history at the 2022 OVC Championship Tournament April 29 through May 1 in Evansville, Indiana.
SEMO will make its third-straight OVC Championship Tournament appearance excluding the 2020 season which saw the Tournament canceled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
