BATON ROUGE, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University women's tennis team closed out the pre-Southland Conference portion of its 2024-25 schedule with a 4-3 road win at Southern Tuesday.
SLU (7-1) extended its winning streak to six with Tuesday's win. Southern fell to 0-3 overall with the loss.
"Southern is a good, well-coached team that made us work for every single point today," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes commented. "Doubles got away from us, but we showed fight in singles by winning three of our matches in three sets. We're not always going to play our best tennis, but if we're willing to fight, we'll always have a chance to be successful."
Southeastern was forced to rally after dropping the doubles point. On court 2, reigning SLC Player or the Week
Aitana Darder teamed with
Leana Gomez for a 6-1 victory over SU's Paris Washington and Kai Wince to improve to 5-3 this spring. However, Southern countered with wins on No. 1 and 3 to take an early 1-0 lead.
In the only straight-set decision of the match, Lion
Claudia Di Leonardo (5-3) earned a 6-4, 6-3 win over Wince on court 3. On No. 4, SLU's
Panatchakorn Suanarsa (6-2) won her sixth straight singles match, besting Tshegofatso Tiang, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Darder (6-1) won her fifth straight singles match, outlasting Shahid Habib, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, on court 5. Southern countered with three-set wins of its own on No. 1 and 6.
The match came down to the No. 2 singles court. Southeastern's
Bente Bierma (3-4) provided the win for SLU, topping Jessica Hess, 6-2, 6-7 (8-10), 7-5.
Southeastern will open Southland Conference play with a 1 p.m. match at UTRGV Saturday in Edinburg, Texas.
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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