Southeastern persevered in its tennis match against Loyola on Tuesday, Feb. 20, ending with an overall 4-3 win.
The doubles point went to Loyola after a close match on court three was settled by a 7-point tiebreaker. Micaela Ponce and A. Salgueiro-Estela eked out a win against Southeastern’s Panatchakorn “Fresh” Suanarsa and Taisia Bolsova.
On court five, SLU’s Bogi Csordas and senior Alba Perez stayed in the lead and ended with a score of 6-2.
The teams fought long and hard during the singles matches, but Southeastern came out on top with wins on four courts.
Perez won against Lucy Carpenter on court one, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Fresh overcame Avery Friarson 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on court six. Kate Oborina earned a complete victory over Loyola’s Chloe Henderson, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4).
The team members gathered to watch the last remaining match as Leana Gomez secured the win against Ponce in the eleventh hour on court two, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
Coach Jason Hayes gave his thoughts on the team’s performance.
“Here’s the thing about this group: we need to play a lot smarter, but I don’t know if we could play any harder. They absolutely fight, fight, fight,” he said.
He spoke about the need for smarter decision-making during matches.
“They are an unbelievable group of kids. They’re super sweet to each other. They support each other, and they have a great sense of humor. It will come with time,” Hayes explained.
Hayes gave his thoughts on his hopes for the Thursday match against Southern.
“If we could get ten percent smarter on Thursday, I’d feel really good about the match. But we need to work towards that every time,” Hayes said.
Perez expressed her feelings about her singles win.
“I’m really happy because I didn’t see a clear win, but in the end, I could help the team and that’s the most important thing,” Perez said.
Perez shared her thoughts on the upcoming match.
“I think this gave us a lot of confidence in our team. We were down, but we believed in ourselves and I think we’re ready for the next one,” Perez stated.
As the matches progressed, multilingual shouts could be heard from each athlete as they scored points. These audible signals allowed the other team members to congratulate and encourage each other by name.
Perez shared the importance of these affirmations.
“That’s what the team does. We cheer each other up and give each other energy. And you need it because, after two hours of playing, that’s the only thing you have. In the end, whoever has more energy on the court is the one who is going to win,” Perez concluded.
The Lady Lions went on to beat Southern 5-2 on Thursday, Feb. 22 at home before breezing past Dillard 6-1 in New Orleans on Sunday, Feb. 25.
Southeastern did fall to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi today in its Southland Conference opener earlier today 4-0 at home, but will look to bounce back at UIW on Monday, March 4.
The match will begin at 10 a.m. in San Antonio.
For all things SLU tennis (5-5), stay tuned to The Lion’s Roar.
