March 6, 2016 Results
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SPRINGFIELD - The Missouri State women's tennis team completed an undefeated weekend with a 6-1 victory over Southeast Missouri State Sunday, March 6, at Cooper Tennis Complex.
The Bears earned their second consecutive win and improved to 4-10 overall, while SEMO dropped to 1-6 on the season.
"The beginning of our schedule was absolutely brutal," Bears head coach Mallory Weber said. It was mentally challenging, it was physically challenging, but weekends like this are making it show that it was all worth it. It was worth scheduling those matches because we're coming out playing very strong, and that's the reason that we're able to beat two quality teams in big ways."
MSU won the initial doubles point by making up deficits in two matchups.
The No. 1 senior doubles team of Miranda Poile and Ema Turudija trailed Mariya Kostiuk and Annisa Warasanti of SEMO after three games, but rallied two win five straight to finish first with a 6-2 decision.
The Redhawks' No. 2 duo of Isabella Krupa and Mila Majtan won 6-2 to force a deciding doubles match at the No. 3 slot. SEMO's Viviana Ortiz and Emilia Montenegro led 6-5 and had a match point opportunity. However, MSU's Abbey Belote and Faty Khamissi battled back to force a tiebreaker that the two eventually won, 7-5.
"The doubles point always gives you a little bit of momentum," Weber said. "It's always nice to have that going into singles. We had to come from behind or down match points in it, and I couldn't be more proud of how that No. 1 doubles team fought back, and how our No. 1 doubles team just closed it out and took care of business today."
MSU won five of the six singles matches, with four finishing in straight sets.
Junior Ekaterina Donetskova closed out her match at No. 4 singles first for the Bears by winning 6-1, 6-0. She was followed by Turudija who earned a 6-1, 6-3 win in the No. 1 position. She completed an undefeated weekend in singles and doubles with her wins Sunday.
The Bears clinched the match at No. 6 singles. MSU's Boeschen recorded consecutive 6-4 set victories, giving MSU the dual-winning fourth point.
SEMO's Krupa picked up the Redhawks' lone point with a straight sets win at the No. 2 slot.
With two matches remaining, Khamissi completed a tough 7-6 (6), 6-3 win over Warasanti at No. 5 singles. She had trailed in the first set before forcing the tiebreaker. Poile was the second Bear to finish off a perfect weekend with a third-set match tiebreaker win over Montenegro. MSU's No. 3 singles player dropped her opening set 6-3 before holding on for a 7-5 win in the second set. She completed the victory with a 10-7 decision in the tiebreaker.
"I think this is the first time we've won both (matches) over a weekend, so its feels really good," Weber said. "The team needed it. I think that we came out very focused today and built off of what we did on Friday, and hopefully that can continue going into spring break."
Missouri State begins a span of three straight road matches with a trip to the Windy City to take on Chicago State at 1 p.m. Thursday, March 10. The Bears follow that with a match in Galesburg, Illinois, versus Western Illinois on Saturday before heading to Arkansas State on March 18.
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