Tennis Caps Off Home-Open Weekend with a 5-2 about Western Illinois

Cape Girardeau, Mo. – Southeast Missouri Tennis (10-9, 2-0) wipes the house opening weekend with another conference profit in the tennis complex of John C. Bierk Redhawks. The Redhawks won on Saturday afternoon 5-2 against the Western Illinois Leathernecks (7-8, 1-1).

After beating Tennessee State yesterday and West-Oillinois today, the Redhawks are now 2-0 in conference game.

The afternoon started with some excitement during the game. Juliette Demunck And Yontha Tadoum Worked together again at the court three and they quickly rolled past Paige Grice and Lara Diniz de Souza 6-2 to take an early 1-0 in doubles.

The Leathernecks quickly corresponded to the doubles with 1-1 when Maja Bajorek And Mia Mayerová fell 6-3 for Mana Fawcett and Chloe Routier at the number 2 position.

The double point then came to the court, Lera Valeeva And Kristina Kozakova vs Nour Gueblaoui and Richardlyne Francois. The Redhawk pair remained a point ahead during most of the competition. The couple of Western found a small momentum and tied the match 5-5. Kozakova took over the serve and with some strong net game the Redhawks rose 6-5. Valeeva and Kozakova would then record the double point that won 7-5 in an exciting last point.

Singles Action started with Valeeva as the first for the Redhawks today again and scored Semo's second point of the game with a simple 6-1, 6-0 win over the number 1 position. Kozakova finished shortly after Valeeva and quickly made work by Anna-Ingevelina Trush at court six. Kozakova won the first set 6-1 and the second set 6-2.

Mia Mayerová won the match and scored the match for the Redhawks that scored the fourth point in a straight set of victory over Court Five against Nour Gueblaoui. Mayerova took care of things in the first set and won 6-3. Mayerova was 5-2 in the second set, but Gueblaoui quickly scored two and made it 5-4. Mayerova found her foot again and ended the game 6-4.

Maja Bajorek Lost a narrow three-setter on the field three against Paige Grice. Bajorek won the first set 6-4, lost the second 7-5 and then lost 10-6 in a super tie break. The Leathernecks won another three set of thriller at the number 2 position. Tadoum lost the first set 6-2 against Francois and gathered in the second to win 6-4. In the draw break, Francois eventually won 10-5 to score the second point for Wiu.

The match ended at Hof Vier with Demunck opposite Fawcett. Demunck ownership set 1 winning 6-2. Rolls were reversed in set 2, with Fawcett won 6-1. The third set was nothing less than a fight, Demunck jumped to a 4-1 lead, but Fawcett came back roaring and tied the set 5-5. She then pushed her lead to 6-5 and had risen 40-30 and won on a double error, 7-5.

Coach Brooks was happy that his Redhawks are now 2-0 in conference game, but thought they had to keep their game a little more with the text: “I enjoyed how we went 4-0, but we have to do better work to stay clean and stick to our game plan under pressure. We have to learn from our mistakes, so that we don't know what to do in the future.

Individual coach Brooks was happy with Lera Valeeva Saying: “I thought Lera played very well and showed a lot of leadership. She lost to this girl in the fall, so Lera wanted to play really well and win this game. She went to them and just got the job. I was also really happy with our number 3 dubbel game, thought they played excellent both days.”

“We have a few days off, then it is back to work to prepare for Zuid -Indiana next Saturday. Better one day!” Is what coach Brooks had to say about the coming match.

The Redhawks will be back in action next Saturday while they travel to Evansville, Indana to be in South Indiana on March 29 at 11 am, CT.