Match 20
vs Southern Indiana (1-10, 1-2)
Date: Saturday, March 29, 2025
Time: 11:00 a.m., CT
Location: Evansville, Ind.
Series: SEMO leads 2-0

Redhawks Trek to Evansville to Face Southern Indiana
Southeast Missouri Tennis will be traveling to Evansville, Indiana to verse the Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles Saturday, March 29. The match is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m., CT. and will be played at the USI tennis courts.  

About Southern Indiana
The Screaming Eagles come into this matchup 1-10 overall and 1-2 in conference play. USI is coming off of their first win of the season Wednesday, when they defeated Eastern Illinois 5-2. Southern Indiana is led by sophomore Sofia Davidoff, who has a 4-6 record in singles, being 3-2 at No. 3. Davidoff, along with Antonia Ferrarini are also tied for most doubles wins this season, being 1-3 at No. 1. The Screaming Eagles were picked to finish fourth in the conference in the OVC preseason poll, getting 22 points. Southern Indiana finished 11-11 last season, going 4-2 in conference play and making it to the semifinals of the OVC tournament before losing to eventual champions SIUE.

Series History
The Redhawks have won both meetings between the two teams prior to this upcoming match. The meetings came in 2023 and 2024 conference play with SEMO winning 7-0 and 6-1 respectively.

OVC Weekly Awards
Lera Valeeva was named Co-Ohio Valley Women's Tennis Player of the Week. This is Valeeva's second time winning an OVC weekly award in her career and the second time for SEMO this season.

Conference Play
The Redhawks are 2-0 in conference play this year with wins over Tennessee State and Western Illinois. 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.

Redhawk Leaders
Juliette Demunck leads the Redhawks in singles this season. Demunck has a team best 11 singles victories with four wins coming at No. 3 and seven wins at No. 4. Kristina Kozakova has eight wins on the season but has only lost three matches this year between No. 5 and 6. 

The graduate pair of Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakova with the most doubles wins so far this year with nine.

Weekend Nine Recap
The Redhawks opened conference play last weekend with a 5-2 win last Friday over Tennessee State and a 5-2 last Saturday over Western Illinois.

The Tennessee State match started off with the Redhawks capturing the doubles point, winning on all three courts. 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. Bajorek won a three-set thriller on court three against Brantley 5-7, 6-4, 11-9.

Against the Leathernecks, Demunck and 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, Valeeva and Kozakova vs Nour Gueblaoui and Richardlyne Francois. The Redhawk pair stayed one point ahead throughout the majority of the match and ended up winning 7-5. In singles play, the Redhawks Valeeva, Kozakova, Mayerová, and Demunck all won their respective matches.  

Looking Ahead
The Redhawks are on the road again after their stay in Evansville. Southeast Missouri will be traveling to Edwardsville, Ill. to face SIUE  on April 4 at 2 p.m., CT.