Match 18
vs Tennessee State University (1-9, 0-1)
Date: Friday, March 21st, 2025
Time: 1:00 p.m., CT
Location: John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Series: SEMO leads 28-3
Live Stats: semoredhawks.com

Match 19
vs Western Illinois University (7-7, 1-0)
Date: Saturday, March 22nd, 2025
Time: 1:00 p.m., CT
Location: John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex, Cape Girardeau, Mo.
Series: SEMO leads 6-2
Live Stats: semoredhawks.com

Redhawks Host Tennessee State and Western Illinois in Home-Opening Weekend
Southeast Missouri Tennis will open conference play in their home-opening weekend against the Tennessee State Tigers and Western Illinois Leathernecks. Both matches will be played at the John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex with the Redhawks facing Tennessee State on Friday, March 21 and Western Illinois on Saturday, March 22. Both matches are scheduled to start at 1 p.m., CT.

About Tennessee State
The Tigers come into this weekend with a 1-9 overall record and an 0-1 record in conference play. Tennessee State was picked to finish last in the Ohio Valley Conference preseason poll with. The lone win of the Tigers season so far came against Delta State University where they won 5-2. The Tigers are led by junior Warona Mdlulwa, who was named to the All-OVC second team last season, as well as being named OVC Student-Athlete of the week for the week of March 7th. In doubles, the duo to watch is Warona Mdlulwa and Francisca Gomez-Weiss, who won a match on the No. 1 court to help the Tigers earn a win over Delta State.  Last season, Tennessee State made it to the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament before losing to the Redhawks.

About Western Illinois
The Leathernecks come into this weekend with a 7-7 overall record and a 1-0 record in conference play. Western Illinois has won their last 2 matches, including a 4-2 conference win over the University of Southern Indiana. The Leathernecks were tabbed to finish third in the OVC preseason poll with 26 points and a first place vote. Western Illinois is led in singles by junior Nour Gueblaoui who boasts a 6-3 record, while Mana Fawcett and Paige Grice lead the team in doubles, holding a 4-3 record and playing most of their matches at No. 2. The Leathernecks have greatly improved their record from last season, earning 5 more wins than in the 2024 season while still having six regular season matches to play.

Series History
The Redhawks have faced the Tigers 31 times in school history, winning 28 of the meetings. The Redhawks are currently on an 8 match win streak against the Tigers, with the last loss coming in the 2016 season. SEMO has knocked Tennessee State out of the last two OVC conference tournaments, winning in the semifinals in both instances.

This weekend will be the ninth meeting between the Redhawks and the Leathernecks. SEMO has the advantage, winning six of the matches and losing just two of them. The Redhawks won the last meeting between the teams, which came in the 2024 season during conference play. Prior to that the last meeting between the teams was in 2018 in which Western Illinois won the match 4-3.

OVC Weekly Awards
Maja Bajorek and Mia Mayerová claimed the Redhawks first  Ohio Valley Conference weekly award this week, Women's Doubles Team of the Week. This marks the first weekly award for Bajorek and Mayerová in their careers. So far this season the sophomore and freshman pair have a record of 7-6 going 3-3 at position one and 4-3 when playing at No. 2. 

Conference Play
The Redhawks open conference play this week coming off of a 6-0 OVC record from last year. Southeast Missouri has gone undefeated in conference play the last two seasons and since 2019 they have gone undefeated three times. Since the 2019 season SEMO has a OVC record of 27-6.

John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex
The John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex is the home for the SEMO tennis team and since 2019 the Redhawks have only lost three matches at home. In the past six years, the Redhawks have an astonishing 27-3 record on their home courts. 

Redhawk Leaders
Juliette Demunck leads the Redhawks in singles this season. Demunck has a team best nine singles victories with four wins coming at No. 3 and five  wins at No. 4. Kristina Kozakova has six wins on the season but has only lost three matches this year between No. 5 and 6. 

The pair of Maja Bajorek and Mia Mayerová are tied with the graduate pair of Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakova with the most doubles wins so far this year with seven. 

Weekend Eight Recap
The Redhawks last competed on March 8 in Orlando, Florida at the USTA National Tennis Center where they fell 5-2 against Villanova 

SEMO dominated doubles play, capturing the doubles point and winning all three doubles matches. Yontha Tadoum teamed up with Claudia Casas to defeat Chloe Floyd and Savie Seebald 6-4 on court three. To clinch the doubles point Juliette Demunck and Kristina Kozakova won 6-3 at the number two position against Emma Brogan and Valieriia Kornieva. Just for good measure, Maja Bajorek and Mia Mayerová defeated Emi Callahan and Miriam Gondorova at the No. 1's 6-4.

In Singles play, the Wildcats won five out of the six singles matches, four of them being in straight sets. Freshman Mayerová was the only Redhawk to capture a singles win. Mayerova defeated Lauren Monti 6-1, 6-2 to capture SEMO's second and last point of the match on court four.

Looking Ahead
After the two match home-stand the Redhawks will be back on the road traveling to Evansville, Ind. to face Southern Indiana at the USI Tennis courts. The match is on March 29th and scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., CT.