ABILENE, Texas – Southeastern Louisiana's
Putri Insani and
Teodora Mitrovic picked up singles victories, but it was not enough as the Lions dropped a 5-2 decision to Abilene Christian in the Southland Conference women's tennis opener for both teams Friday afternoon at the Eager Tennis Center.
SLU fell to 4-4 overall and 0-1 in league action with the loss. The host Wildcats (5-7, 1-0 Southland) took the doubles point and won four singles matches to start the conference portion of its schedule with a victory.
Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes was pleased with his team's effort, but not the execution.
"We played hard and had our chances, but ultimately we didn't step up and win enough points in key situations," Hayes commented. "We made the same mistakes that we made in the fall and we can't do that against a quality conference opponent and expect to have success. The positive thing is that the effort was there on every court and the mistakes we've made are easily correctible moving forward."
ACU took the early lead in doubles play. On No. 3, the Wildcat pair of Claire Fisher and Allison Stewart took down the Lion duo of Mitrovic and
Katya Cornejo (1-4, 0-1 SLC), 6-2. Abilene Christian closed out the doubles point on No. 1, as Sarah Adams and Nini Memishishi snapped the six-match doubles win streak of Insani and Yanez (6-2, 0-1 SLC) to take a 1-0 lead.
The Wildcats extended the lead to 2-0 on No. 6, as Fisher handed SLU's
Kim Bohlen (4-1, 0-1 SLC) her first collegiate singles dual match loss by a score of 6-1, 6-0. Memishishi gave ACU a 3-0 lead with a 6-1, 7-5 win over
Flory Bierma (2-4, 0-1 SLC) on No. 2.
Insani (5-2, 1-0 SLC) put Southeastern on the board with a 6-4, 7-6 win over Adams on No. 1. Mitrovic (5-0, 1-0 SLC) remained undefeated in singles play as a Lion, defeating Ileana Mocciola, 6-4, 6-2, to pull SLU within, 3-2.
Abilene Christian clinched the match on No. 3, as Stewart outlasted SLU's
Polina Sleptsova (2-4, 0-1 SLC), 6-3, 2-6, 6-0. Andrea Guerrero provided the final margin with a 6-4, 3-6, 11-9 win over Yanez (0-2, 0-1 SLC) on the No. 4 court.
Up Next
Southeastern will close its road trip with an 11 a.m. Southland match at UIW on Sunday.
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.
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