HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana University sophomore
Leana Gomez rallied for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Ana Kouchnareva to clinch SLU's 4-3 victory over New Orleans in Southland Conference women's tennis action Thursday evening at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
SLU (11-5, 3-3 SLC) evened its Southland Conference record by taking the doubles point and splitting the six singles matches. UNO fell to 5-9 overall and 1-5 in league action.
"One thing that's great about our team is that you never know who will be the one to step up for us," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes said. "UNO definitely made us work for this win, but our effort was great tonight throughout the match."
The Lions took the lead in doubles play. On court 3, the Southeastern duo of
Taisia Bolsova and
Claudia Di Leonardo (3-3, 3-2 SLC) earned a 6-3 victory over UNO's Iris Danne and Ananya Dhankar. Moments later, SLU's
Panatchakorn Suanarsa and
Bente Bierma (8-7, 2-3) closed out a 6-4 win over Kouchnareva and Kate Kalistratova to put the Lions up, 1-0.
Southeastern added to its lead in singles play, as
Aitana Darder (10-3, 4-2 SLC) made short work of Dhankhar, 6-4, 6-0, on court 5. Suanarsa (10-5, 3-3 SLC) gave SLU a 3-0 lead with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Nouray Khaled, on No. 4.
UNO countered with a straight-set win on court 6 and the final three matches went to three sets. The Privateers won on courts 2 and 3 to knot the match at 3-3.
Gomez (7-6, 1-5 SLC) dropped the first set on the top singles court and was down, 5-4, in the second set, before winning three straight games to force a third set. The deciding set was all Gomez, as she jumped out to a 4-0 lead and held on to clinch the win for the Lions.
Next up, Southeastern is scheduled to face Mississippi Valley State in an 11 a.m. doubleheader Sunday in Jackson, Mississippi.
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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