Southeast Missouri State University
SIUE
Tennis Wins a 4-3 Nail Biter Against SIUE to Remain Atop the OVC Standings
4/4/2025 6:19:00 PM | Women's Tennis
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Southeast Missouri Tennis (12-9, 4-0 OVC) remained atop the OVC standings with a 4-3 thriller over SIUE (12-5, 2-2 OVC). The match came all the way down to the outcome on court six to decide a winner and Kristina Kozakova didn't miss a beat and clinched the match for the Redhawks.
Doubles pairs of Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakova and Yontha Tadoum and Juliette Demunck stayed undefeated in conference play at 4-0.
Demunck and Kozakova are also unbeaten in conference play at 4-0. Demunck picked up her team high 13th win on the season.
The doubles point came down to the wire with SEMO eventually winning on court 2.
SIUE's Amelia Gorman and Stefaniya Anikina took the first doubles match winning 6-4 on court 1. Juliette Demunck and Yontha Tadoum quickly fired right back, tying the doubles match 1-1 and didn't have any trouble winning 6-3 against Paige Duncan and Chloe Koons.
Lera Valeeva and Kristina Kozakova had a battle at the No. 2 position against Margaux Guibal Britt and Payton Tomichek. SIUE got up to a quick 4-0 lead and it looked like they were going to run away with the match. Then Valeeva and Kozakova came roaring and scored five straight to take the lead 5-4. After some back and forth power swings SEMO came away with a 7-5 victory to clinch the doubles point.
Valeeva and Kozakova extended their doubles winning streak to six matches after the win.
In singles action, court four and five finished at the exact same time. Demunck rolled past Duncan at No. 4 beating her in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 to capture SEMO's second point. Anikina captured the Cougars first point defeating Mia Mayerová in straight sets at No. 5, 6-4, 6-1.
Tomichek from SIUE, tied the match on court three with her win over Bajorek. The first set, the match was close all the way through but Bajorek ended up losing 7-5. Then Tomichek won 6-3 in set two.
Two three set thrillers took place at the top of the lineup. Valeeva took on Gorman on court one and easily took care of her in the first set, winning 6-2. The second set was a different story as Valeeva fell 3-6. The third set rolled around Valeeva fought hard but ultimately fell 7-5. On court two it was reversed. Yontha Tadoum lost the first set against Guibal Britt 6-1 but she regained her composure and won 7-5 in set two and 6-4 in set three to tie the match 3-3.
It all came down to the outcome on court six to decide the winner of the match. Kristina Kozakova didn't let the pressure get to her and won in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 against Chloe Koons.
Coach Brooks was very happy for his team and he is truly amazed about how far they have come. Coach Brooks said, "These girls have worked so hard and come such a long way to get to where they are right now. One thing we do really well as a team is we fight, and we fight hard. We are competitors. I was upset for Lera today but her opponent was tough. Overall I thought the team looked sharp, a bit tight from the beginning, but we finished really strong. One day better!"
Southeast Missouri even had a fan at the facilty to watch the Redhawks. SEMO looks forwarded to seeing that fan and another fans cheering them on at the OVC Tournament on April 17-19.
The Redhawks will be back at the Edwardsville YMCA Meyer Center Sunday to face Eastern Illinois. The match is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m., CT.
Players Mentioned
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
1,3,2
#1 Singles Match
#2 Singles Match
#3 Singles Match
#4 Singles Match
#5 Singles Match
#6 Singles Match
Order of Finish:
4,5,3,1,2
