WTennis Earns 20 Wins for the First Time in 21 Years

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No. 24 Mustangs Top UALR, No. 28 DePaul On Senior Day
Mustangs Earn 20 Wins in a Season for the First Time in 21 Years

DALLAS (SMU)- The No. 24 SMU women's tennis team (20-2) completed a two-match sweep on Wednesday, March 25 to collect their eighth and ninth consecutive wins against Arkansas-Little Rock (5-10) and No. 28 DePaul (15-3) at Turpin Tennis Stadium, marking the first time in 21 years the Mustangs have achieved a 20 win season.

Due to inclement weather, the Mustangs played singles at the top of the order and successfully recorded a 5-0 sweep against UALR, with an extra win by default. Returning to top form, No. 57 freshman Marta Lesniak collected an easy win (6-1, 6-1) over Anne Weijenborg at the top spot, while freshman Mustang Aleksandra Malyarchikova took care of business on court two in straight sets (6-2, 6-2) against Marta Gomez-Jordana.

Senior Kristen Reid moved into the third spot, dropping (6-2, 6-2) Chantal Coolen to improve to 11-3 on the season. Battling through a first set tiebreaker, senior Monica Neveklovska defeated Rebecca Van de Houte in the second set to give SMU the match win (7-5, 6-4). Junior Sophie Quist also handled her opponent in a two set victory (6-4, 6-2).

To cap off the day's success, the Mustangs earned an impressive 4-2 win over the No. 28 DePaul Demons. No. 43 Mustang tandem Lesniak and Malyarchikova defeated a strong No. 79 DePaul duo Anna Redesci and Selma Salkovich, 8-6. To win the doubles point, junior Nicole Briceno and senior Kseniia Tokarieva paired up to wipe out (8-1) Kirsten Gambrell and Gia McKnight.

In singles, Lesniak claimed her second victory (6-2, 6-2) of the day in top form over Redecsi, while Malyarchikova followed suit in the third spot (7-5, 6-2) after battling through a first set tiebreaker against Salkovic for the win.

Junior Pavi Francis scored an impressive three-set victory on court four, overcoming a second set loss to destroy Sandra Zmak in the third and give the Mustangs the match win (7-6, 2-6, 6-1).

"We had a lot of hurdles today that we could have let get in the way of these wins, such as time changes, bad weather and the emotions of it being senior day," said head coach Lauren Longbotham-Meisner. "But, the team responded well and I was really excited that we could finish our home season with two great wins. DePaul is a very, very good indoor team and the team proved to me that they can win against a Top 30 team either indoors or outdoors. Now, we can focus on the trip to Kansas and we are excited to hit the road and play some more great competition."

The Mustangs will return to action on Friday when they compete in the Via Christi Collegiate Classic hosted by Wichita State in Wichita, Kansas with their first match set for 10:00 a.m. against Nevada.

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Congrats to the team