By: Jacob Pumphrey
WICHITA FALLS, Texas – The newly-revitalized Southern Arkansas Men's and Women's Tennis programs opened up their seasons this past weekend at the 8
th Annual Midwestern State Invitational in Wichita Falls, Texas, and produced several solid performances in the programs' first collegiate action under first-year head coach
Greg Owen.
Highlighting the Muleriders' weekend stint in north central Texas was the doubles play of SAU Women
Joanna Nowakowska and
Serena Gill. The duo won the Flight B (Double Elimination) tournament. Below are the results of Nowakowska and Gill's doubles play:
Def. Carolina Fabbri / Laura Rincon-Arias (North Central Texas College) 8-1
Def. Taylor Gray / Emilija Segetlija (Midwestern State) 9-7
Def. Sara Grozdanovic / Tess Lovig (Northwest Missouri State) 9-8 (3)
Def. Julie Rinderknech / Julia Aliseda (Northwest Missouri State) Default
In Women's Singles Flight C action, Nowakowska topped Cameron's Sara Petric 6-3, 6-4 on her way to the Flight's final match. Nowakowska also defeated Midwestern State's Taylor Gray 4-6, 6-2, 10-5 and Washburn's Svea Crohn 6-2, 6-4.
After dropping her opening match of Flight C,
Simone Simas rallied to win a pair of matches: 6-2, 6-1 over Gray and 6-0, 6-0 over Midwestern State's Lea Cizeron.
In the Women's Extra Flight (Single Elimination Dropdown), Gill and
Angela Vargas each won their respective matches with Gill defeating Dallas Baptist's Devon Austin 8-5 and Vargas knocking off Midwestern State's Taylor Gray 8-4.
After dropping the opening set of her Flight A singles match against Northwest Missouri State's Tania Teruel, Vargas rallied to win 5-7, 7-6, 10-7.
When asked about the SAU Women, Owen stated, "This is a talented team that performed well and they are already putting in the necessary work this week to prepare for the upcoming GAC tournament."
Men's Flight A Doubles saw the pair of
Yuri Gondouin and
Natiphat Mulada win a pair of matches to advance to the semifinal of the flight:
Def. Julien Aubry-Damon / Pierre Marion (Cameron) 9-7
Def. Quentin Scharfenberg / Alex Martinez Roca (Midwestern State) 8-4
Joining Gondouin and Mulada with a Doubles match win was
Gustavo Kerber and
Aleksandr Pokusaev. The Flight B combo won 8-3 over Spyridon Kaperonis and Francisco Mesa of Northwest Missouri State.
Kerber was also victorious in a Flight D singles elimination match over Washburn's Luke Howard, 6-0, 6-0, and then went on to defeat Cameron's Blake Graham 6-1, 6-0.
The Men's Extra Flight (Single Elimination Dropdown) saw three Muleriders claim a win:
Raymond Garcia def. Northwest Missouri's Spyridon Kaperonis 8-3
Pokusaev def. Northwest Missouri's Agustin Velasco 8-4
For full results of Southern Arkansas' two-day stint at the Midwestern State Invite, visit the link provided: (
https://my.mascotmedia.net/product/ExternalProofReview/e8dc15c7-ba01-41d7-9a53-28868eb08439.)
Owen understands the process of developing new teams. When discussing the SAU Men post-match, Owen noted, "This team is hungry to compete. We know we have a lot of work ahead of us but I know this group is ready for those challenges."
Both the SAU Men and Women will now prepare for the Great American Conference Individual Championships this Friday and Saturday, September 21-22 in Russellville, Arkansas, hosted by Arkansas Tech University.
