HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University women's tennis team closed out its 2023-24 home schedule with a 4-2 Southland Conference loss to Northwestern State Saturday afternoon at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
SLU (7-10, 0-4 SLC) looked to close out its home slate on a high note, but the visiting Lady Demons (9-6, 2-2 SLC) earned a competitive doubles point and claimed the necessary three singles victories to secure the win.
"We keep improving and getting closer against good teams," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes said. "If we continue to knock on the door, eventually we're going to break through with a win."
The doubles point came down to the No. 1 court. The Lion pair of
Bente Bierma and
Leana Gomez dropped a 7-6 (7-5) decision to NSU's Tjasa Klevisar and Honoka Umeda to allow the Lady Demons to take a 1-0 lead.
SLU's
Panatchakorn Suanarsa earned a default win on court 6 to tie the score, but Northwestern State answered with straight set victories on Nos. 4 and 5 to extend its lead to 3-1.
Gomez pulled Southeastern closer on court 2, handing Lady Demon Sara Erenda a 6-2-, 6-4 defeat. It appeared as if SLU's
Kate Oborina was poised to tie the match, but Maria Farina battled out of a 5-3 second-set deficit to split sets.
Moments later, the Lady Demons clinched the matched. Klevisar rallied from down, 3-0, in the third set to outlast Lion
Alba Perez, 6-0, 4-6, 6-4, on the No. 1 court.
Southeastern will open a stretch of three consecutive SLC road matches to close the season Monday, traveling to Lamar (9-7, 2-2 SLC) for a 1 p.m. match. The Cardinals are led by Natalia Turczuk, who has a perfect 12-0 singles record. In doubles play, Megan Do and Leah Kuruville have a team-best six wins as a pairing.
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
For more information on Southeastern Tennis, follow @LionUpTennis on X and Instagram and like /lionupathletics on Facebook.
