Match 1 - vs. Texas State
Date: Saturday, January 18, 2024
Time: 9 a.m., CT
Location: Stillwater, Okla.
Series: First Meeting
Live Stats: OKState.com
Watch: TSUvsSEMO

Match 2 - vs. #4 Oklahoma State
Date: Saturday, January 18, 2024
Time: 1 p.m., CT
Location: Stillwater, Okla.
Series: First Meeting
Live Stats: OKState.com
Watch: OKSTvsSEMO

Redhawks Open Spring Season in Stillwater, Oklahoma
The reigning back-to-back regular season OVC champion Southeast Missouri will travel to the University of Oklahoma State to open up their spring season. The Redhawks will start by facing Texas State at 9 a.m., CT and then face Oklahoma State at 1 p.m., CT. Both matches will take place at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Okla.

About Texas State 
Texas State will open their season against the Redhawks, coming off of an 11-7 record in the 2024 spring season. Texas State went 5-5 in the Sun Belt Conference last year, falling to Georgia State University 4-3 in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament. The Bobcats are led by Senior Kiana Graham who had a record of 8-6 at no. 1 during the 2024 season. The Bobcats have two new additions to the team for this season, freshmen Tadiwa Mauchi and Chantajah Mills. 

About Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State comes into this weekend with a 1-0 record coming off of a 7-0 win over Wyoming. Oklahoma State is currently ranked 4th in the nation and has spent 18 straight weeks being ranked in the top 5, being ranked 1st overall in 12 of those weeks. This meeting marks the second time that SEMO has faced off against a nationally ranked school since 2009, with the last ranked matchup happening in 2014 against #31 Northwestern State.

The Cowgirls were undefeated in conference play last year going 13-0 and winning the Big 12 Conference Championship. Oklahoma State made it to the third round of the 2024 NCAA Tennis Championship before losing to Tennessee. The Cowgirls topped the Big 12 preseason poll, getting 15 of a possible 16 first place votes. Oklahoma State has added 4 new players for the 2025 season, two of them being freshmen and two of them being transfers.  

Series History 
This will be the first time Southeast Missouri has faced Texas State or Oklahoma State. The Redhawks have a 1-0 record against Oklahoma schools beating Oral Roberts. Against Texas schools the Redhawks have a 0-2 record with losses against North Texas and the University of Texas-El Paso.

A New Era Begins
Steve Brooks will be taking over the reigns as the new Head Coach for the SEMO tennis program. Coach Brooks was hired back in August of 2024 and this will be his first spring season as the Head Coach of the Redhawks. Coach Brooks becomes the 10th head coach in program history and comes to SEMO with more than 20 years of collegiate coaching experience, including 15 at the NCAA Division I level.

Fall Recap
The Redhawks enjoyed a successful fall season. SEMO competed in four tournaments over the fall, the OVC Fall tournament, Tennessee Fall Intercollegiate Tournament, the ITA Regional, and the UCA Fall Invitational. In singles action the Redhawks posted a 30-22 overall record with Juliette Demunck (9-2) and Mia Mayerová (8-3) leading the way for SEMO. In doubles play, SEMO went 12-8 with the partnership of Maja Bajorek and Mayerová earning the most wins with six.

Redhawks Picked second in 2025 OVC Preseason Poll
The Redhawks were picked second in this year's preseason poll with 28 points trailing only SIUE who was picked first with 36 total points and six of the seven first place votes. Western Illinois after finishing in last place a season ago was picked third with the other first place vote and 26 total points. Southern Indiana (22), Lindenwood (15), Eastern Illinois (12), and Tennessee State (10) completed the poll. 

The University of Bryant will be joining the OVC tennis schools but will not play a regular season conference schedule. The Bulldogs will be competing at the OVC conference tournament as part of the eight team field.

Lera Valeeva, the graduate, was SEMO's singles player to watch for the spring. Valeeva joins Kristina Kozakova, a grad transfer from Blue Mountain Christian as the doubles players to watch this spring.

2023 Review
For the second straight year the Redhawks won the OVC regular season title. SEMO had an overall record of 12-7 last season and finished undefeated in conference play with six wins and zero losses. During league play the Redhawks had three shutout victories and the other three wins SEMO only gave up one point in each match. Throughout the season the Redhawks dominated the OVC weekly awards.

Daniela Hlacikova earned her second straight OVC player of the year award.  Hlacikova became the first player in program history to be voted OVC Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons. Juliette Talieu and Trinity Calinescu joined Hlacikova on the All-OVC First-Team selections while Vivian Lai earned Second-Team Honors. Hlacikova and Talieu also got named to the All-OVC Doubles Team. Previous Head Coach Mary Beth Gunn picked up her second OVC Coach of the year award. 

At the OVC tournament, the Redhawks crushed #5 seeded Tennessee State 4-0 in the semifinals. In the tournament finals SEMO fell 4-1 against #2 seeded SIU Edwardsville.