Sept. 13, 2015

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SPRINGFIELD -- The Missouri State women's tennis team wrapped up its exhibition appearance in the Drury Invitational at Cooper Tennis Complex Sunday, Sept. 13, with three student-athletes going undefeated in singles and the squad combining for a 7-2 mark in doubles.

"This is a really solid start to our year," Bears tennis head coach Mallory Weber said. "I think all of the girls did a really good job, had a lot of solid matches and saw some success this weekend which will give them a lot of confidence going forward."

In the four-team round robin Invite which included Drury, Northwest Missouri State and Washington University in St. Louis, senior Ema Turudija and freshman Phoebe Boeschen went undefeated in their three matches at No. 1 and No. 5 singles, respectively. Miranda Poile also won two of her matchups with one going unfinished at the No. 4 slot.

"A majority of them had a winning record this weekend," Weber said. "You look at Ema and Phoebe in singles who both won all of their matches, then a lot of them had winning records and did really well in singles and in doubles. It shows early on that they can compete at a high level."

Junior Ekaterina Donetskova, sophomores Abbey Belote and MacKinzie Conard, and freshman Faty Khamissi also competed in singles for the Bears. Donetskova and Khamissi each went 1-1 at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively, with each having one match end unfinished. Belote also picked up a victory at No. 6 singles in two tries.

The Bears mixed playing partners -- with sophomore Anelisse Torrico Moreno included -- on the final day of play Sunday in doubles, with the squad's No. 3 duo going 3-0 and No. 1 and No. 2 playing partners finishing 2-1 apiece.

"It's definitely still going to be a process even though we've started out at a place where we've exceeded expectations a little bit," Weber said. "We played pretty well this weekend, but I think that we have to continue to get better. I think if we play like this the whole season, it's going to be a long year. We have to continue to improve week after week and I think this group's really motivated to do that. Starting off as strongly as we have has us excited to improve, and they're excited to see what that next test will be as we keep playing this fall.

Missouri State next heads to Conway, Arkansas, from Sept. 18-19 for the Central Arkansas Fall Tournament. The Bears follow that with a trip to the Missouri Valley Conference Individual Tennis Championship on Oct. 2 and conclude their fall schedule at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Central Regional Championships beginning Oct. 15.