The Lady Lions tennis team first secured a 5-2 win over Lamar on Monday, March 11, kicking off a strong week of conference play. They followed up with another 5-2 victory over UIW on Wednesday, continuing their momentum on the court.

With these back-to-back wins, the Lady Lions improved their SLC record to 2-2 as they head into the third week of conference play.

SLU vs. Lamar

During the doubles matches, a new pair of sophomores were on the court, Claudia Di Leonardo and Taisia Bolsova, were on the court and the duo got Southeastern’s only doubles win of the day, finishing 6-0.

Despite being down 0-1 heading into singles, Leonardo and Bolsova continued their dominance.  The pair was the first to finish, giving the team a one-point lead at 3-1. 

Junior Panatchakorn “Fresh” Suanarsa and sophomore Bente Bierma won their matches.  Suanarsa finished in a tiebreaker and Bente secured a win in the third set. 

To finish the day, freshman Aitana Darder clinched her match in the third set 6-3 to give the team their sixth win, finishing 5-2.

SLU vs UIW

With the momentum from Monday’s win, Leonardo and Bolsova took their second win as a duo, being the first to finish.  The two sophomores, Leana Gomez and Darder gained a hard-fought victory to give the team an advantage, 1-0.

Head coach Jason Hayes was satisfied with the impressive showing in the doubles wins.

“We got off to a great start in doubles again, which gave us positive momentum that carried us through the day. UIW had our numbers in recent years, so this is a big win to help boost our confidence moving forward,” said Hayes.

With the advantage on the Southeastern side, they took their surprise singles win with Suanarsa’s opponent retiring due to an ankle injury. 

Not long after, Bolsova won her singles match and gave SLU the lead 2-0. To round out the win, Darder crushed her 2-0, with Leonardo clutching her second set 7-6 to give Southeastern a 5-2 victory to cement a home sweep.

Leonardo reflected on her strategy to win her single match.

“I tried to stay focused in my match and what I needed to do to win [against] my opponent. The first set was easier than the second one. I was playing like I needed to play, I have a lot of mistakes and I was making her miss more balls and it was working pretty well,” said Leonardo.

The Green and Gold will return to the court on Tuesday, March 18, at 5 p.m. to go against Loyola for a non-conference game. Fans can watch and support at the Southeastern Tennis Complex across from Louisiana Hall.