Freshman Dany Raygadas was the lone Lady Lion to win in singles during the match against Nicholls. The Lion’s Roar / Kelonda Dixon
This past week, the Lady Lions’ tennis team travelled around Louisiana to verse local teams: New Orleans Privateers, McNeese State University Cowgirls and Nicholls State University Colonels – but fell short, resulting in losses for every overall match.
To begin last week’s matches, the Lady Lions travelled to New Orleans to play against the Privateers at the University Tennis Center on Wednesday, April 15 at 1:30 p.m. Due to the inclement weather, the match between the Lady Lions (11-7, 3-6 Southland) and the Privateers (13-9, 3-6 Southland) had to be moved from outdoor courts to indoors. The Lady Lions started off short with UNO taking the doubles point, making their score 0-1. The Lady Lions remained unsuccessful in their doubles with the Privateers winning eight to three on the number two and number three courts.
In the singles, the Lady Lions continued to fall short, only earning one point which was made by junior Renee Villarreal. Despite their fall, Villarreal improved her overall singles record to 16-1 and to 9-0 in Southland Conference singles matches. The Lady Lions finished with a final score of 1-4.
The Lady Lions then travelled to Lake Charles to play against the Cowgirls at the Nancy Hank Center on Friday, April 17 at 11 a.m. Since the teams were expecting rain, they started with the singles first. The Lady Lions (11-8, 3-7 Southland) and the Cowgirls (11-7, 7-3 Southland) split the six singles matches. In court number one, Villarreal had some close sets when versing Julia Kral of the Cowgirls, 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, yet remained unbeaten for the Southland Conference singles. In court number five, freshman Dany Raygadas defeated McNeese’s Anastasija Trubich, 6-4 and 6-3. In court number six, freshman Natalie Duran scored another point for Southeastern, winning her first singles match for Conference when playing against Andreaa Nenu of the Cowgirls. Despite victories in singles, the Lady Lions were defeated by McNeese by an 8-2 score in doubles on court number two and court number three. Southeastern finished with a close score of 3-4.
Following the close match against the McNeese Cowgirls, the Lady Lions travelled to their last match of the regular season to verse the league-leader Nicholls in Thibodaux at the Colonel Tennis Complex on Sunday, April 19 at 2 p.m. For the doubles, the Colonels won the doubles point on the number two court and the number three court. In the singles, on court number five, Raygadas defeated Kateryna Nakonechna, 6-4 and 6-3, improving her overall singles record to 12-7 and to 6-5 in Southland Conference single matches and gaining one point for the Lady Lions. Nicholls won the five other singles matches. Despite Villarreal being one of the top singles players in the Southland Conference, she was defeated by Nicholls’ Stephanie Barnett, finishing 6-2 and 6-4, changing her overall singles record to 17-2, 10-1 in Southland Conference singles matches and her overall career singles record to 55-6. The Lady Lions finished with a final score of 1-6.
Southeastern’s Lady Lions finished the regular season with an overall of 11-9 and 3-8 for Conference.
The eighth seeded Lady Lions will have a tough test this Friday as they will travel to Beaumont Texas to take on top seeded Nicholls in the first round of the Southland Conference Tournament. Tee time for the match is 11 a.m. Visit lionsports.net to stay on top of all the SLC Tournament action.