DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern got off to a rough start as the women's tennis team opened the 2013 spring season with back-to-back losses to highly-ranked foes Dallas Baptist and Central Oklahoma.
The Savage Storm opened the weekend with a 7-2 loss to the Patriots from DBU before heading to familiar territory in Edmond, Okla., where they dropped a 9-0 matchup to the Bronchos at UCO.
DBU entered the contest ranked No. 50 in the nation and No. 8 in a tough South-Central Region.
SE picked up a pair of wins at the bottom of the lineup, led by an impressive come-from-behind effort, downing DBU's No. 5 0-6, 6-4, 10-3.
She was followed at the No. 6 position by
Marina Dias who makes the transition to tennis from volleyball and opened her tennis career with a 6-3, 6-3 win over DBU's No. 6.
The Storm opened the match getting swept in doubles play, and found itself up against a wall at the top of the order, dropping positions one through four.
“We played well,” said head coach
Shawn Hamil, “We just came up short. We are excited about our play from Freshman
Elba Haugen, Elba was down in the first set 0 - 6 and came back to win the second set and out last her opponent in the Tie breaker with an impressive score in final set tie break.”
“Also
Marina Dias made the move from volleyball well, playing her first official Division II match in women's tennis and competed at high level, coming through with a great win 6 - 3, 6 -3 in singles.”
The weekend ended on Monday afternoon with another difficult matchup against in-state rival UCO.
The Bronchos jumped out to a 3-0 lead after sweeping doubles convincingly.
Sabina Marderenko challenged at No. 1 position, but fell to Anita Rossini 6-3, 7-5.
UCO would sweep through the remaining positions in straight sets to drop Southeastern to 0-2 to start the spring season.
The Storm will return to the court Feb. 17 when it hosts Southwest Baptist at noon in the home opener for the Southeastern Tennis Complex.
