HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana University's
Carla Del Barrio won a three-set singles match on the No. 3 singles court to clinch a grueling 4-3 Southland Conference victory over New Orleans Saturday afternoon at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
SLU (8-8, 2-3 Southland) won the doubles point and then split the six singles matches – four of which went into three sets. New Orleans fell to 8-7 overall and 1-4 in Southland Conference play.
"This was a hard-fought win from us and I'm so proud of our effort," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes said. "New Orleans certainly made us earn it today. Every time we thought we had them down, they fought back. This was a great win for us."
Southeastern took a 1-0 lead in doubles play. On court 1,
Flory Bierma and
Putri Insani (10-4, 4-1 SLC) won their third straight doubles match with a 6-4 win over UNO's Laurie Barendse and Tristanne Dechoux. SLU clinched the doubles point on No. 3, as
Kate Oborina and
Alba Perez (3-3, 2-1 SLC) defeated Ana Kouchnareva and Ksenia Reznitskaya, 7-5.
After UNO evened the match with a straight-set win on court 1 in singles play, Perez (6-8, 1-4 SLC) put the Lions back on top with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Audelia Morin on No. 6.
The remaining four matches went to a third set. On No. 4, Oborina (9-5, 4-1 SLC) won her fourth straight match, defeating Dechoux, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, to put SLU up, 3-1. However, UNO evened the match with wins on courts 2 and 5.
The match came down to court 3. Del Barrio rallied from a 5-1 deficit to take the opening set and was able to outlast Kouchnareva, 7-6 (10-8), 4-6, 6-3, and give Southeastern wthe win.
The Lions have three matches set for the final week of the regular season. SLU is scheduled to travel to Alcorn State for its final nonconference match Monday at noon in Lorman, Mississippi. Southeastern will close out its home schedule Wednesday, hosting Nicholls at noon at the Southeastern Tennis Complex. Thursday's regular season finale at Northwestern State is set for 1 p.m.
40 LOVE CLUB
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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