Stephen F. Austin
Mcneese State
Ladyjacks Split In League-Opening Matches
3/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
March 1, 2009
BEAUMONT, Texas - The Ladyjack tennis team spit its pair of matches on the first weekend of Southland Conference play, picking up a 5-2 win over McNeese on Friday before falling 7-0 at Lamar on Sunday.
The win over the Cowgirls snapped a seven match losing streak for SFA (2-8, 1-1 SLC) and got the Ladyjacks in the win column early in the SLC season.
The highlight of the weekend was the doubles tandem of Roxana Enica and Alina Shazkho, which won both doubles contests for the weekend to run its win streak to four consecutive matches. The duo registered the only win of the match against Lamar, defeating the No. 1 team from LU of Mariaryeni Gutierrez and Maria Gutierrez 8-6. That came just one day after defeating Ralitsa Pirdopska and Victoria Martinez of McNeese State, 8-4, on Friday.
In addition to Enica and Shazkho, the No. 2 doubles team of Gabriela Gadeva and Tatiana Smolnikova went to a tiebreaker to land an 8-7 win over Petra Gudelj and Maria Frausto to secure the doubles point against McNeese.
From there, SFA scored points in No. 2-5 singles play with only Sanjana Kapur needing more than two sets to dispose of her opponent. Kapur won her No. 3 match over Gudelj (6-3, 0-6, 10-6) while Shazkho won her fourth consecutive singles match over (6-2, 6-2) the Cowgirls' Martinez.
Gadeva and Smolnikova both scored singles points as well against McNeese, with Gadeva earning a straight-set (6-1, 6-4) win over Tera Tvrtkovic and Smolnikova doing the same with Frausto (6-1, 6-4).
On Sunday, though, it was all Cardinals as the defending SLC Tournament champions only fell in No. 1 doubles. Enica was the only Ladyjack able to steal a singles set against the Cardinals, but still fell in No. 1 action (6-0, 4-6, 10-4) to Mariaryeni Gutierrez.
SFA will play at home this week for the first time in nearly a month, hosting Southeastern Louisiana and Nicholls on Saturday and Sunday at the Schlief Tennis Complex. Southeastern Louisiana, the three-time defending SLC regular season champions, will battle the Ladyjacks at noon on Saturday before SFA takes on Nicholls at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday.
-SFA-
