HAMMOND, La. – A valiant effort by the Southeastern Louisiana women's tennis team to claim a berth in the Southland Conference Tournament fell just short on Tuesday, as the Lions dropped a narrow 4-3 decision to Southland and in-state rival New Orleans in the 2018-19 regular season finale for both teams at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
Southeastern finished the season one win shy of returning to the postseason, falling to 7-12 overall and 4-7 in league play. New Orleans (13-9, 6-5 Southland) will be in the tournament field next week in Corpus Christi, Texas.
"Every player gave all they had and we did all we could, but it just wasn't our day," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes said. "I told our team to keep their heads high, because they represented SLU with everything they had and we will be back next year."
Southeastern got off to a promising start by taking the doubles point. On No. 3,
Flory Bierma and
Katya Cornejo (6-8, 4-3 Southland) took a 6-3 decision over the UNO pair of Salma Abdelrahim and Brittany Johnson. After the Privateers evened things on the top court,
Ceci Mercier and
Vicky Scholz (7-3, 7-3 Southland) gave SLU a 1-0 lead with a 6-3 victory over Claudette Gilhespie and Lea Alguacil on No. 2.
Playing in the final match of her collegiate career, Mercier (8-5, 5-4 Southland) gave the Lions a 2-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Mar Gendra on the No. 4 singles court. However, UNO retook the advantage with straight-set singles victories on No. 1, 2 and 5.
Southeastern evened the match on the No. 6 singles court. Cornejo (5-8, 3-5 Southland), who kept the Lions' postseason hopes alive with the match-clinching singles victory in Sunday's 4-3 win over Stephen F. Austin, knotted the score at 3-3 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Johnson.
The match would come down to the No. 3 court. SLU's
Ximena Yanez shook off a loss in the first set before forcing a third set. Ultimately, Abdelrahim outlasted the Southeastern sophomore, 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, to clinch the victory for the Privateers.
Yanez, Bierma, Cornejo and
Putri Insani will all return to provide a solid nucleus for Southeastern's 2019-20 roster.
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
For more information on Southeastern Tennis, follow @SLU_Tennis on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube channel.
