The Lion’s Roar / William Schmidt
Dalina Dahlmans took the court at a past home tennis match. Over the weekend, duo Dahlmans and Renee Villarreal won with a 6-4 victory.
The Lion’s Roar / William Schmidt
Lady Lion Madina Vorotnikova fought hard for the Lions and won her opening set at the Southland Tournament but was unable to win the last two sets.
This past weekend, the Lady Lions tennis team took on the Lady Demons in the Southland Conference Tournament only to finish this post-season game just short of a victory. With this loss, the Lady Lions finished out their season 14-9 overall.
Starting off with the doubles, both of the All-Southland Conference doubles teams started off strong, giving the team the lead. Senior Renee Villarreal and sophomore Dalina Dahlmans made a 6-4 victory in court No. 1 while junior Margaux Kaltenbacher and sophomore Dany Raygadas also made a 6-2 victory in court No. 3. Villarreal and Dahlmans are the first team All-Southland duo for the Lady Lions while Kaltenbacher and Raygadas are an honorable mention All-Southland Lion pair. In court No. 2, sophomores Lucia Bustamante and Ceci Mercier made a 6-3 victory as well.
Unfortunately, the Lady Lions fell short in the singles, yet remained close until the very last few sets on court No. 6. On court No. 1, Villarreal swept past Northwestern State University’s senior Natalya Krutova, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4. On court No. 2, Dahlmans fell short 2-6, 3-6, while on court No. 3, Raygadas also fell short, but remained close in her second singles set, 2-6, 6-7 (3-5). On court No. 4, Mercier remained behind, 1-6, 2-6. On court No. 5, Bustamante finished with 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, evening out the score at 3-3. On court No. 6, sophomore Madina Vorotnikova started off stronger with a 7-6 (7-5) set victory, but fell short in the final two, 4-6, 1-6. The match finished out a close 4-3, closing out the season for the Lady Lions.
As a senior, Villarreal finished out her final season as the 2016 Southland Conference Player of the Year, the only Southeastern four-time first team All-Southland performer and as fourth on the school’s career singles victories list with a 73-9 career singles record. Ending out the season, Kaltenbacher will also be leaving the team since she will be graduating from the university early.
With these two Lady Lions concluding their final seasons, Head Tennis Coach Jason Hayes felt that although their shoes will be hard to fill, he has hopes for the new members of the team.
“We’re going to lose two really good girls, Renee and Margaux and they’re going to be impossible to replace, but we’ve got a good group coming back,” said Hayes. “We’re going to have to work really hard and hope that our new players can come in and help us, but it’s going to be impossible to replace them, but at the same time, I really like the girls that we have coming back because we have the right attitude and that can help us. Next year will be difficult.”
Reflecting on this final game of the season, Hayes felt that the team played well despite it ending in a loss.
“I thought we played good and it just wasn’t our day,” said Hayes. “Northwestern was just a little stronger than us today, but I’m so happy with the efforts the girls had and how hard they played; unfortunately, we just finished second today.”
Looking back on the overall performance of the season, coach Hayes was pleased with how well the team did.
“I thought it was great,” said Hayes. “This is such a great team. They’re so self-motivated. They work very hard and they were just a pleasure to have around. I couldn’t be happier with how hard they worked.”
For more information on this concluded season or the upcoming season, visit lionsports.net.