Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Southeast Missouri
Players Mentioned
Racers Finish Fall Season On A High Note At SEMO Invitational
10/9/2017 2:30:00 PM | Women's Tennis
The Murray State women's tennis team competed in the Southeast Missouri Invitational this Saturday, October 7 at Cape Girardeau, Mo.
It was the Redhawks of Southeast Missouri that the Racers took on first, with the Racers winning four of six singles matches. Claire Chang won in three sets, losing the first set 4-6, but was able to rally and win the next two 6-4 and 10-4. Amina Hadzic was next up, only needing two sets to secure the second victory for the Racers, winning 6-4 and 6-3. Another three set match was in store for Murray, as Jeanne Masson came away winning the last two sets 7-5 and 10-5 after droping the first 3-6. Sara Loncarevic came away with a two set win as well, defeating her opponent 6-3 in both sets In doubles against SEMO, Murray was able to secure another win, as Chang and Hadzic won 6-1. The other two doubles matches saw Murray lose narrowly 6-4 in both matches
 "It was a huge team effort this weekend and I am very happy to see the improvements that we made from the last tournament. We lost to SEMO last year playing at home, so it was huge for us getting a win playing at their home courts. We will be going there in the spring during the Ohio Valley Conference, season so it was great to see how competitive we were this early in our season," said head coach Jorge Caetano. "What stood out the most about this match was the fact that we lost the first set in four out of the six first sets, but the girls were very resilient and we were able to come back and still win two of those matches."
 The Racers also took on William Woods, a strong NAIA opponent who made the NAIA semi-finals last year. In the three singles matches played against William Woods, Murray won all three. Chang came away victorious 6-3 and 6-2. Stasya Sharapova had trouble in her first set, but was able to come away with a 6-4 win and a clean 6-0 win in set two. Hadzic secured a win on the back of 6-0 and 6-2 sets before rain prevented the completion of the other three matches. Loncarevic was up 5-0 in the second set after winning 6-1 and Sarah Bjok was up 3-1 in the second set. In doubles, the Racers came away victorious 6-2 in all three matches.
"Amina and Sara Loncarevic had very strong performances this weekend I was very happy to see the way they dominated their opponents. Claire played well in the important moments of the matches and it was great to see her bouncing back from the injury that stopped her last weekend to go 4-0 this weekend.I am also very pleased with the way Jeanne, Stasya and Sara Bjork played this weekend. They had tough matches but were able to come on top on most of them," said Caetano "It is amazing to see how much Sara and Jeanne have improved from last year and also how much improvement Stasya has made in such a short period of time here.We have made a lot of improvements so far this season but we are still very far from where we want to be in the spring. We are going to continue to work hard but most importantly take care of our bodies right now so we are ready in January."
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