CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Southeast Missouri Tennis (10-9, 2-0) sweeps home-opening weekend with another conference win at the John C. Bierk Redhawks Tennis Complex. The Redhawks won 5-2 Saturday afternoon against the Western Illinois Leathernecks (7-8, 1-1).
After defeating Tennessee State yesterday and Western Illinois today, The Redhawks are now 2-0 in conference play.
The afternoon started off with some excitement during doubles play. Juliette Demunck and Yontha Tadoum teamed up again on court three and they quickly rolled past Paige Grice and Lara Diniz de Souza 6-2 to take an early 1-0 in doubles play.
The Leathernecks quickly tied the doubles matches 1-1 when Maja Bajorek and Mia Mayerová fell 6-3 to Mana Fawcett and Chloe Routier at the No. 2 position.
The doubles point then came down to the outcome on court one, Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakova vs Nour Gueblaoui and Richardlyne Francois. The Redhawk pair stayed one point ahead throughout the majority of the match. Western's pair found a little momentum and tied the match 5-5. Kozakova took over the serve and with some strong net play the Redhawks were up 6-5. Valeeva and Kozakova then would capture the doubles point winning 7-5 in a thrilling last point.
Singles action started with Valeeva finished first for the Redhawks again today and scored SEMO's second point of the match with an easy 6-1, 6-0 victory at the No. 1 position. Kozakova finished shortly after Valeeva, making quick work of Anna-Evelina Trush on court six. Kozakova won the first set 6-1, and the second set 6-2.
Mia Mayerová clinched the match scoring the match for the Redhawks scoring the fourth point in a straight set win on court five against Nour Gueblaoui. Mayerova took care of business in the first set, winning 6-3. Mayerova was up 5-2 in the second set but Gueblaoui quickly scored two and made it 5-4. Mayerova found her footing again and ended the match winning 6-4.
Maja Bajorek lost a close three-setter on court three against Paige Grice. Bajorek won the first set 6-4, lost the second 7-5, then lost 10-6 in a super tie break. The Leathernecks won another three set thriller at the No. 2 position. Tadoum lost the first set 6-2 against Francois and rallied in the second to win 6-4. In the tie break Francois ended up winning 10-5 to score the second point for WIU.
The match ended on court four with Demunck facing off against Fawcett. Demunck owned set 1 winning 6-2. Roles were reversed in set 2 with Fawcett winning 6-1. The third set was nothing short of a battle, Demunck jumped out to a 4-1 lead but Fawcett came roaring back and tied the set 5-5. She then pushed her lead to 6-5 and was up 40-30 and won on a double fault, 7-5.
Coach Brooks was happy that his Redhawks are now 2-0 in conference play but thought they needed to stick their game a little more stating, "I liked how we went up 4-0 but we need to do a better job at staying clean and sticking to our game plan under pressure. We need to learn from our mistakes so we can't know what to do in the future.
Individually Coach Brooks was happy with Lera Valeeva saying, "I thought Lera played really well and showed great leadership. She lost to this girl in the fall so Lera really wanted to play well and win this match. She went out their and just got the job done. I was also really happy with our No. 3 doubles pair, thought they played excellent both days."
"We've got a couple days off then it's back to work preparing for Southern Indiana next Saturday. One day better!" is what Coach Brooks had to say about the upcoming match.
The Redhawks are back in action next Saturday as they travel to Evansville, Indana to face Southern Indiana on March 29 at 11 a.m., CT.
