Southeastern Louisiana 6, UIW 1
HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana women’s tennis team remained undefeated in Southland Conference home matches this spring, defeating Incarnate Word, 6-1, on Saturday at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
Because of expected rain later in the day, the match started with singles play and SLU (8-2, 3-1 Southland) clinched the win by winning five of six singles matches. With the rain holding off, the teams decided to go ahead with doubles despite the match being decided. The Lions won all three matches over visiting UIW (2-14, 0-4 Southland).
“We get a little better each time we are on court,” Southeastern head coach Jason Hayes said. “I was proud of how we were able to raise our level today. We handled playing singles before doubles perfectly. This group really supports each other well and its effort is always at the highest level.”
SLU junior Renee Villarreal continued her perfect start to singles play this spring, improving to 10-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Rachel Sadiq on the No. 1 court. The Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico native ran her career singles record to 48-4 with the win.
At the bottom of the singles draw, freshmen Dany Raygadas and Madina Vorotnikova each improved to 8-1 overall and 4-0 in league singles play, as both extended their singles winning streaks to seven matches. Raygadas rolled past Maria Batchinsky, 6-0, 6-1 on the No. 5 court, while Vorotnikova also earned a 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Brianah Creek at No. 6.
Freshman Lucia Bustamante (8-2, 3-1 Southland) also continued her impressive debut season. At No. 3, she handled UIW’s Sarah Savedra, 6-2, 6-3.
Closing out SLU’s singles scoring was sophomore Margaux Kaltenbacher (5-4, 2-2 Southland), who won her third straight singles match, 6-1, 6-2, at No. 4 over Malisa Vatanadilok.
In doubles play, the new SLU teams all remained undefeated. Villarreal and Bustamante (2-0) were too much for Sadiq and Savedra in an 8-1 win at No. 1. At No. 2, Kaltenbacher and Raygadas (2-0) moved past Vatanadilok and Matea Zemunik, 8-4.
Making their debut as a team, Vorotnikova and freshman Natalie Duran (1-0) completed the Southeastern doubles sweep. The new Lion duo defeated Batchinsky and Creek, 8-2, on the No. 3 court.
Southeastern will close out its four-match home stand on Monday, hosting Southland foe Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 1 p.m. at the Southeastern Tennis Complex.