CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri Tennis (9-9, 1-0) defeated Tennessee State (1-10, 0-2) 5-2 Friday afternoon at the John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex. SEMO is now 1-0 in conference play.
Conference play started off with the Redhawks capturing the doubles point, winning on all three courts.
Juliette Demunck and Yontha Tadoum were the first Redhawk pair to win. Demunck and Tadoum never gave up an inch and breezed past Sydney Brantley and Victoria Cooksey 6-0 at No. 3.
Maja Bajorek and Mia Mayerova captured the doubles point winning 6-3 at position two against Francisca Gomez-Weiss and Natalie Walsh. On court one, Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakova had a close one. The match was back and forth through the majority, then SEMO's No. 1 pair won 6-4 against Louise Ratiu and Jovana Nikolic.
In singles action, SEMO won four out of the six singles matches to clinch the win.
Valeeva took care of business on court one, capturing SEMO's second point of the match. Valeeva won in straight sets against Ratiu only letting her score one point in set 2, 6-4, 6-1. Kozakova finished right after Valeeva, winning 6-3, 6-2 at position six against Cooksey.
Demunck won in straight sets at No. 4 against Aroa Castillo 6-0, 7-5. Demunck had no trouble in set one, but in set two she was down 5-3 with Castillo threatening to force a set three. Demunck then came roaring back to win four points in a row to take set two.
Tennessee State scored their first point on court five when Nikolic beat Mayerova 6-4, 6-3.
Maja Bajorek won a three-set thriller on court three against Brantley. Maja barely lost the first set 7-5, pulled out a 6-4 victory in set two to tie the match. Then in set three Bajorek was down 9-6 and fought back to win 11-9, finishing off the match with a strong forehand.
Tadoum faced Gomez-Weiss for another three-setter. Tadoum was down 0-5 in set one but gained momentum and barely lost 6-4. Keeping that momentum in set two, she won 7-5. The third set was close all the way through with Gomez-Weiss eventually winning 10-7.
The Redhawks will be back at the John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex tomorrow facing Western Illinois at 1 p.m., CT.
