OVC Tournament - Quarterfinals
vs Tennessee State (2-15, 1-5 OVC)
Date: Thursday, April 17, 2025
Time: 9:00 a.m., CT
Location: St. Louis, Mo.
Venue: Dwight Davis Tennis Center

Redhawks Concludes Conference Play at Lindenwood Thursday
#1 Seeded Southeast Missouri (13-9, 5-0 OVC) will trek to St. Louis Missouri this week to compete at the OVC Tournament at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center. SEMO will face #8 Tennessee State at 9 a.m., CT on Thursday.

Redhawks Tournament History
The Redhawks are looking for their third tournament title in the past four years after winning back-to-back in 2022 and 2023. SEMO has made the finals of the OVC tournament four times in the last four years, including two victories, a 4-1 win over Austin Peay in 2022 and a 4-2 win over SIUE in 2023. This will be the Redhawks first tournament appearance under Coach Steve Brooks, coming in Brooks first year as head coach. This is the third consecutive year where the Redhawks have secured the first seed by going undefeated in conference play. Since 2021, the Redhawks are 6-2 at the OVC tournament. 

OVC Bracket
Southeast Missouri State, the #1 seed in the bracket, faces off against #8 Tennessee State in the first round of play. During the regular season the Redhawks beat the Tigers in a 5-2 win that saw the doubles duo of Juliette Demunck and Yontha Tadoum win their match 6-0.  #4 SIUE (3-3) matches up against #5 Lindenwood (2-3) in the first round. SIUE holds the best overall winning percentage in the conference, being 13-6 for the year (68.4%).#2 Western Illinois (5-1) plays #7 Southern Indiana (1-5) in the first round of tournament play. Western Illinois is coming into the tournament on a four game win streak with all wins coming in conference play. OVC newcomers Bryant are the #3 seed in the bracket and face off against #6 Eastern Illinois in the first round. Bryant did not play a conference schedule this year, while Eastern Illinois went 3-3 in conference play. 

Yearly Awards
First year Head Coach Steve Brooks won 2025 OVC Coach of the year. Graduate Lera Valeeva was named to the First-Team All-OVC team. This is Valeeva's first ever postseason award during her time here at SEMO. 

Back-to-Back-to-Back
The Redhawks have won the regular season OVC title three years in a row dating back to the 2023 season. SEMO tennis won the regular season title for the fourth time in program history ('21, '23, '24, '25). Southeast Missouri has now gone undefeated in conference play the last three seasons and since 2019 they have gone undefeated four times. Since the 2019 season SEMO has a OVC record of 32-6.

OVC Weekly Awards
Southeast Missouri garnered three OVC weekly awards this season. Maja Bajorek and Mia Mayerova won two OVC Doubles Team of the Week awards while Lera Valeeva won the OVC Player of the Week Award once. Bajorek and Mayerova have ten wins this season and Valeeva has seven.

Redhawk Leaders
Juliette Demunck leads the Redhawks in singles this season. Demunck has a team best 13 singles victories with four wins coming at No. 3 and nine wins at No. 4. Kristina Kozakopva and Maja Bajorek have reached double-digit wins this year. Bajorek has ten wins while Kozakova has 11 wins on the season but has only lost three matches this year between No. 5, 6, and 4. Over the past five weeks the Redhawks have gone 20-10 in singles play. 

The graduate pair of Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakova has the most doubles wins so far this year with eleven. Maja Bajorek and Mia Mayerova aren't far behind with 10. The Redhawks have gone 12-3 over the past five weeks in doubles action.

Undefeated
Doubles pair of Juliette Demunck and Yontha Tadoum finished conference play at 5-0. The pair is also on a seven match winning streak after starting the season with a loss. Kozakova remained the only Redhawk that went undefeated in singles conference play at 5-0. Kozakova is 8-1 in her last nine matches.