The SHSU tennis team had a rough weekend, dropping three conference matches.
The squad faced off with the University of Louisiana- Monroe Friday afternoon in Nacogdoches, a neutral site, to make up a match missed earlier this season due to weather. The girls gave it their best, but ULM would come out on top 7-0.
Monroe swept the Bearkats in doubles. They won the No. 1 spot 8-4, the No. 2 spot 8-2, and the No. 3 spot 8-0. The first point of the match would go to ULM.
In singles, the Indians bested SHSU 6-0.
There were some tight matches, however. Fati Benboubker fought a tough fight at the No. 2 singles spot against Veronica Perez. The match was a long one, Benboubker taking the first set in a tiebreaker (7-6), but Perez would come out with the win 6-7, 7-5, 10-8.
” We fought hard,” said No. 6 singles player Shanna Elias. “It was just not a good day for us. It was incredibly hot, so that didn’t help much either.”
On Saturday, the Bearkats would return home, but the home court advantage would not be enough. The UTSA Roadrunners would best SHSU 5-2.
The Kats started off without the doubles point on their side of the scoreboard, having lost the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches.
In singles, all matches would finish in straight sets. However, due to injuries, the No. 5 and No. 6 singles points would go to Sam Houston. This was not enough to keep the Kats alive, but they would return the next day.
“This team is one of the best in our conference, and they are extremely solid,” said Elias of UTSA, the team currently one of the top two in the Southland Conference. “We played well, they are just very deep.”
The girls would return on Sunday morning to face the Lady Bobcats of Southwest Texas State University. Despite a close match at the No. 1 doubles, the Bobcats would begin singles play 1-0, sweeping SHSU in doubles.
On the singles side, the squad would put up a hard fight. Although there were several close matches, it seemed that the Bearkats couldn’t catch a break. Everything seemed to go the way of the Bobcats.
At the one spot, Tara Shelander lost a hard-fought match to SWT’s Tina Klemenc 7-6, 6-4.
Melanie Hall who would come out with the win 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. The rest of the matches went about the same way.
Eventually, Southwest Texas would come out with a win over SHSU 7-0.
SHSU tennis will conclude its 2003 spring season this Thursday at home against SFA.