The Lady Lions tennis team finished the fall season by placing 5th in the George E. Fourmaux Fed Cup Invitational.

The university hosted seven other universities from Oct. 26-28 to compete in a series of matches. The University of West Florida took home 1st place.

“We didn’t start with the result we wanted at the beginning, but we learned from every single match,” said Cecilia Mercier, a senior. “We became better, and we beat UNO, which is one of our conference opponents.”

Mercier won two of her three singles matches. She shared her thoughts on the weekend tournament.

“The hard work is starting to pay off,” said Mercier. “We came back in a couple matches today that the other opponents had much points, and we still won those matches. I think we still have a lot of hard work and things to improve, which is perfect because that means we have a lot of space and areas that we can improve on and get ready for next semester.”

Putri Insani, a freshman, won her doubles match with Ximena Yanez, a sophomore, against the University of North Alabama. She pinpointed areas of improvement.

“I definitely need to improve my physical because I’m bad at it,” said Insani. “My feet just couldn’t run so good, and I’m not that fast, and my backhand, I need to work on it.”

Flory Bierma, a freshman, won her doubles match with Bernadette Dornieden, a freshman, against the University of New Orleans. She discussed how the tournament went for her.

“I think it went good,” said Bierma. “We practiced strategies that were best for us, and I think we connected good in the matches.”

Mercier explained how the tournament benefited freshmen on the team.

“Having more matches for them means more experience getting used to the environment,” said Mercier. “I think this tournament was perfect because it was a team tournament so they can start learning, and they got to play against conference teams. I think all kinds of areas we can always improve, which is perfect because I would be worried if we were on our best level already.”