HAMMOND, La. – For the third time in as many Southland Conference matches, the Southeastern Louisiana women's tennis team took the doubles point, but it was not enough in a 6-1 league loss to McNeese Saturday afternoon at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
SLU fell to 4-7 overall and 1-2 in league action. McNeese bounced back from consecutive Southland losses to Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to improve to 7-6 overall and 2-2 in Southland play.
"The difference today was the emotion these two teams played with, especially in singles play," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes said. "We give McNeese credit. They played with the positive emotion needed to be successful and we didn't.
"We're a young team and we have to learn from today," Hayes continued. "We're going to play some key league matches down the stretch that could come down to which team has the right attitude and plays with the most positive emotion. We have to use the lessons we were taught in this loss and get better from them."
The top two doubles teams for SLU both improved to 3-0 in Southland Conference play to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. After McNeese took the decision on No. 3, Southeastern's
Ceci Mercier and
Vicky Scholz handed Giovanni Fioretti and Dalia Ahmed a 6-3 loss on No. 2. Moments later, the Lion duo of
Putri Insani and
Ximena Yanez clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 win over Charoline Erlandsson and Sofia San Jose Moreno on court 1.
Any positive momentum Southeastern took into singles play was quickly extinguished. McNeese clinched the victory with straight-set wins on courts 2,3,4 and 5.
The last two singles matches went to three sets. On No. 6, Ahmed rallied past SLU's
Flory Bierma for a 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory. Erlandsson improved to 13-0 this spring, handing Insani her first Southland singles loss with a 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 win on the top singles court.
SLU will head to Beaumont, Texas next week to make up a pair of league matches that were rained out earlier this season. Southeastern will face Incarnate Word on Friday at 11 a.m. and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Sunday at noon.
40 LOVE CLUB / S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the tennis program are encouraged to join the 40 Love Club. Lion tennis alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners.
All membership fees and donations to both the 40 Love Club and S Club (tennis) are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern tennis program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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