Senior Dalina Dahlmans was the only Lady Lion to be victorious in both singles and doubles play against University of New Orleans. Nikisun Shrestha/The Lion's Roar

The Lady Lions tennis team remains winless in the Southland Conference after another loss against the University of New Orleans.

On Saturday, March 10, UNO beat the hosts 4-3. Head Coach Jason Hayes shared his thoughts on the 0-2 start to the conference.

“We’ve played two good teams,” said Hayes. “The girls are playing hard. We could not be playing any harder. We need to play just a little bit smarter. But we’ll keep working, and they’re a great group, and we’ll see what happens.”

Senior Dalina Dahlmans had victories in both her singles and doubles play. She described the importance of winning doubles play where UNO was victorious in two out of the three matches.

“We fight hard,” said Dahlmans. “We really put ourselves out there and give all we can. We came up short in doubles. I think that’s the key. If we don’t win the doubles point, it’s gonna be a very tough tournament. It’s a lot less pressure if you win the doubles point.”

Dahlmans expects changes in the pairings of doubles play for the upcoming matches.

“We’re gonna come up with some new decisions on how teams are gonna pair up, and then we’ll see if we can make a difference out there in doubles,” said Dahlmans.

Hayes plans to move his players around in doubles to get better results.

“We have to come up with new teams,” said Hayes. “We have had very little success, and it’s a shame ’cause we’ve worked really hard.”

Dahlmans and her partner freshman Ximena Yanez carried their form with the pair getting their third consecutive doubles match victory. Dahlmans gave her thoughts on her partnership with Yanez.

“We really match up good,” said Dahlmans. “I think that’s the combination that will stay. We’ll probably move up to one again. Nicholls, we have to win this. If we make the tournament, this is one of the teams we have to beat hands down. It’s going to be important next Wednesday.”

Dahlmans was disappointed with the loss after having a week of preparation.

“We had a really good week of practice, and I think coach expected us to win 4-3 instead of lose 4-3,” said Dahlmans. “He knew that doubles was the key, and it’s sad that we didn’t win.”

Hayes feels the team was executing the plans they formulated in practice and felt they came up short due to a lack of consistency.

“We had a great week of practice,” said Hayes. “I saw so many things from this week that we were able to do today. We just have to keep working. We have to stay on them. We’ve got to learn to grind more points out, make fewer mistakes. Like I said, it’s a great group, and they work hard. Sometimes, we’re just not the best team.”

The team will be looking for their first conference win as they host Nicholls State University on Wednesday, March 14 at 2 p.m. 

“Nicholls will be tough,” said Hayes. “They beat us last year 4-3. It’s a rivalry match. We’ve got them on campus at 1:00. Hopefully, we have a nice crowd, and we’ll see what happens. But it will be tough.”