HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana women's tennis team opened its Southland Conference home schedule with a narrow 4-3 loss to Lamar on Friday afternoon at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
The Lions (5-5, 1-2 Southland) won the doubles point, but Lamar (7-4, 1-2 Southland) came back to earn four straight-set singles victories to rally for the victory.
"Today it was evident that our lineup featured three freshmen, two sophomores and one junior," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes said. "This group gives us maximum effort every time out, which is all I can ask for. But even though I wouldn't trade our effort for anyone's, our inexperience showed today with some of the mistakes we made. We'll learn from today and be a better team for it."
SLU took a 1-0 lead after doubles play. On No. 1,
Putri Insani and
Ximena Yanez (7-2, 1-1 Southland) handled the LU duo of Bianca Vitale and Natalia Molina, 6-2. Lamar countered with a 6-3 win on the No. 2 court.
The point came down to the No. 3 court. The SLU duo of
Katya Cornejo and
Polina Sleptsova (2-0, 2-0 Southland) overcame a 3-0 deficit for a 6-4 win over Ana Jolic and Jayci Wong to give the Lions the early lead.
In singles play, Sleptsova (4-4, 2-1 Southland) gave the Lions a 2-0 advantage with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Sanja Jolic. LU quickly tied the match, however, with wins on the No. 1 and 4 courts.
Kim Bohlen (6-1, 2-1 Southland) shook off a tough first set to defeat Ana Jolic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, to give SLU a 3-2 advantage. Lamar tied the match on court 2, as Vitale outlasted
Flory Bierma (3-5, 1-2 Southland) 7-5, 7-6 (10-8).
The match was decided on the No. 5 court. SLU's
Teodora Mitrovic (6-1, 2-1 Southland) suffered her first dual match collegiate singles loss, falling to Laura Sola Grau, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.
Up Next
Southeastern will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for a noon Southland Conference match on Sunday at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
Lamar 4, Southeastern Louisiana 3
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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