PADUCAH, Ken. - Kristina Kozakova wins a three-set thriller and gives Southeast Missouri tennis (1-4) their first victory of the season. The Redhawks won 4-3 over the Murray State Racers (0-2) Thursday afternoon.
The morning started with doubles play, with SEMO edging out Murray State to clinch the doubles point. Varya Alexeyeva and Paola Campigotto defeated Maja Bajorek and Yontha Tadoum 6-0 on Court 2 to claim the first doubles match.
Juliette Demunck and Claudia Casas quickly took care of business on court three and tied the doubles match at 1-1, with a 6-2 victory over Megan Null and Barbora Hermanova.
SEMO's number one pair, Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakoa took on Yuna Kadowaki and Yu Kikawa. The match went down to the wire, going back and forth. Valeeva and Kozakova both moved up to the net and eventually won 7-5 to clinch the doubles point for the Redhawks.
In singles action, the match came down to court five to decide the winner. SEMO would win the last three matches to clinch the fourth and game deciding point. All of the Redhawks singles wins came in the third set.
Murray State took the first two doubles points winning on court two and six. At the No. 2 position, Yontha Tadoum lost 6-1 in the first set and retired due to injury against Alexeyeva. Campigotto defeated Casas in straight sets 6-0, 6-2 at the No. 6 position.
Valeeva fell in straight sets against Chaikovskaia at No. 1. Valeeva barely lost the first set 7-6, then fell 6-1 in set two giving Murray their third point. On court four, Demunck easy took the first set 6-3, fell in the second set 6-2, and then pulled out the victory winning 6-3 against Kikawa.
After being down 3-0 in set 1, Bajorek fought back and won 6-4. In the second set, Bajorek forced a tie break but ended up losing 7-5 in the break to give Bruna Melato a 7-6 victory in set two. In set three, Bajorek took control and never looked back, winning 6-2.
Kristina Kozakova would clinch the fourth point for SEMO after a three-set thriller against Kadowaki on court five. Kozakova would squeak out a 7-5 victory in set one, lose set two 6-3, then win set three 6-2 clinching the match for the Redhawks.
The match was very competitive from start to finish. Murray State was picked first in the Missouri Valley preseason poll at the beginning of their season so they came into this match up with some fire. The Redhawks on the other hand, always fight from start to finish.
Murray State is always a great team and they are coached very well with some very talented players, is what Coach Brooks noted after the match. Coach Brooks was very proud of his team after this one saying, "Winning the doubles point was very important. Great Job by Juliette and Claudia for getting it started. Lera played really well vs an expirneced player. We went down 1-3 with the three remaining matches going three sets. Maja and Juliette tied the match at 3-3. Then it was fun wacthing the Redhawks line up and cheer on Kristina as she clinched the match! One day bettter!"
SEMO will be back in Paducah, Kentucky tomorrow to face Louisiana Tech at 2 p.m., CT.
