The Lady Lions tennis team finished up its regular season of play with a three-game loss but still grabbed the No. 6 seed for the start of the 2014 Southland Conference Tennis Championships.
The first two games were played at the Southeastern Tennis Complex against McNeese State University April 18 and Nicholls State University April 19.
In the first game against McNeese, Southeastern took a 5-0 lead to an 8-5 win over McNeese in the first doubles match on court No. 2 between Southeastern’s Reginka Nychytailova and Adriana Castillo versus McNeese’s Vivien Borbely and Anastasia Surkova. The other two doubles matches ended in tie breakers in which Southeastern was able to accomplish the double point.
In the singles match, Nychytailova was able to win her singles match in the No. 4 court but McNeese was able to secure the other five singles match in which they won straight sets.
Southeastern had a 2-5 loss against McNeese.
The Lady Lions took on Nicholls in a home match.
Southeastern’s Valya Rusakova and Renee Villarreal were able to win 8-1 in their doubles match on the No. 1 court but Nicholls’ Colonels took the win on court No. 2 and No. 3 giving the Colonels a 1-0 lead.
Southeastern won their singles match in the top three courts, but the Colonels won in the bottom three courts giving them the match win.
Southeastern took a 3-4 loss in facing the Colonels bringing them to a 14-6 overall and 6-5 in the league.
Even though the team lost, they gave everything they had on the court in each match.
“I feel proud of everyone. I’m sure that [everyone who] played gave their best in the court,” said Castillo. “We lost, but that does not mean anything when we gave everything we had.”
Hayes agreed that the tennis team played hard on the court as they do in every match.
“I was happy with how hard we played,” said Coach Jason Hayes. “The team always fights which is a real positive. We wanted to win but sadly we just came up on the short end.”
Sophmore Villareal won her singles match against Nicholls’ freshman Stephanie Barnett, showing Nicholls she was a worthy foe on the courts.
According to Hayes, Barnett is currently ranked 110 in the country and “it was a very good win for her to beat the 110th player in the country.”
Senior Rusakova won both her singles and doubles matches in the final home match of the season. Along with Rusakova, Junior Castillo played her final home match as she will be graduating in December.
The final match of the regular season was hosted by Northwestern University at the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex in which Southeastern took a 4-0 loss bringing them to a 14-7 overall and a 6-6 in the Southland Conference.
Both Castillo and Rusakova will be missed as the tennis team will have a hard time finding new players to fill their positions.
“They are going to be very difficult to replace,” said Hayes. “They are good players. Both are great teammates. I am happy that I had an opportunity to coach them with winning the conference championship last year. They both played a major role in the success that we’ve had. I’m very happy for them. That they are graduating and I am very fortunate that I got to coach both of them.”
Castillo remembers how winning the conference championship in 2013 was her fondest memory while playing on Southeastern’s tennis team.
“I have a lot of memories,” said Castillo. “But, the one I am never going to forget was last year in our conference match against Northwestern when we needed to win in order to be conference champions and get our rings. My teammate was playing and losing with a match point against her, and we needed her match to win. All the team was in the court screaming for her and supporting her. She won in three sets and it was a feeling that I can’t even describe. So much happiness and proud for her and the entire team.”
Throughout the entire regular season, the tennis players gave everything they had.
“The players really work hard and fight for each match. They are so proud to represent Southeastern, and no one match determines how hard they fight because they always