HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana University women's tennis team suffered its second straight narrow Southland Conference loss, falling, 4-3, to Northwestern State Monday afternoon at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
SLU (9-6, 2-3 SLC) took the doubles point, but Northwestern State (9-5, 5-1 SLC) countered by winning four of six singles matches to spoil the Lions' upset bid.
"We had another great effort today," Southeastern head coach
Jason Hayes commented. "We've had two opportunities this week to take down two of the top teams in our conference and unfortunately came up just a little short."
SLU took the early lead in doubles play with wins on the top two courts. On No. 1,
Bente Bierma and
Paige Duncan (7-4, 3-2 SLC) won their third straight match, besting NSU's Sofi Garcia and Honoka Umeda. The point came down to court 2, where
Aitana Darder and
Taisia Bolsova (7-7, 2-2 SLC) outlasted the Demon pair of Maria Farina and Lija Mumlek, 7-6 (7-5).
Northwestern State took a 2-1 lead in singles play with quick straight-set victories on courts 2 and 6. Duncan (9-3, 4-1 SLC) evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Garcia on No. 5.
NSU jumped back on top with a straight-set triumph on court 4 and the final two singles matches were decided in three sets. Darder (4-4, 3-2 SLC) knotted the score at 3-3 with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Athina Grigoriadou on No. 3.
The match was decided on the top singles court. Umeda outlasted SLU's
Panatchakorn Suanarsa (5-8, 0-5 SLC), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, to clinch the match for the Demons.
Southeastern will return to action Saturday, traveling to face New Orleans in a 2 p.m. SLC match.
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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