Racers Succumb To Governors In OVC Tournament

Saturday, April 21

Nashville, Tenn.

2:00 pm

Murray State

Austin Peay

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

4/21/2018 7:00:00 PM | Women's Tennis

Box Score PDF RESULTS

The Murray State women's tennis team fell to the Austin Peay Governors 4-1 in the Ohio Valley Conference tennis semifinals at the Centennial Sportsplex Tennis Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

It wasn't our day today. We were two points away from winning the doubles point but unfortunately we couldn't't get it done and that gave Austin Peay a lot of momentum heading to singles," said head coach Jorge Caetano after the match. "Their top players played a great match, and every time we tried to make a come back and turned the momentum in our favor, they had an answer. Our team fought really hard and kept on believing but unfortunately we couldn't't get it done, so congrats to Austin Peay."

Battling in doubles, the pair of Amina Hadzic and Anja Loncarevic picked up their 11^th win of the year together, as they won 6-2 to make it 1-1. Sara Bjork and Stasya Sharapova gave all they could, as they tied their match 6-6 before losing 7-6.

Murray State battled hard in singles play, with the results closer than they looked. Anja Loncarevic earned the lone win for the Racers, winning in two sets 6-0 and 6-3 for her ninth win of the year.

"It was an incredible season and we had high expectations going to this tournament, so this loss hurts even more but we can't forget what an amazing season we had. Winning ten in a row, putting ourselves in the position to win the regular season, and going to the tournament as one of the favorites is something that this group hadn't done before, so there are a lot of positives even though it doesn't't feel like it today."

Predicted to finish fourth in the OVC in the preseason, the Racers surpassed expectations as they went on to finish 14-8 overall and 8-1 in conference play. This was their highest finish since the 2014-15 season when they finished first with a 9-1 conference record and a 17-4 overall record.

Three student athletes made the All-OVC team this year for the racers as well, with Claire Chang being named to the OVC first team and Stasya Sharapova and Aarja Chakraborty named to the OVC second team.

"We will have everyone returning next year and knowing the personality and character of this team, I know that they'll be ready to work even harder and with the experience and accomplishments we had this year."