Murray State
Southeast Missouri
Racers Conclude Play In Paducah Host Event
2/3/2025 12:21:00 PM | Women's Tennis
Murray State went 1-2 in team play over the weekend.
Murray State women's tennis dropped two of three matches from this past weekend at the Hilliard Lyons Indoor Tennis Center in Paducah, facing Southeast Missouri, Austin Peay and Louisiana Tech. Murray State is now 1-3 this spring.
On Thursday, The Racers started strong against SEMO with a 6-0 win from the pairing of Paola Campigotto and Varya Alexeyeva. The Redhawks halted that momentum after winning a pair of tight doubles matches, 6-2 and 7-5, to give them the doubles point.
In singles, Alexeyeva secured the first point after her opponent retired due to injury. The next singles points were delivered by Campigotto and Valeria Chaikovskaia, winning their matches in straight sets to give Murray State a 3-1 lead. Newcomers Bruna Melato, Yu Kikawa and Yuna Kadowaki fought hard to win their second sets and take their matches to the final set. SEMO came out victorious on all 3 courts, giving them the 4-3 match win.
On Friday, the Racers faced off against Austin Peay. The Governors were struck with sickness, leaving them with only four players. This resulted in the Racers starting the match 2-0. The pair of Chaikovskaia and Melato were down 3-2 and won four straight games to earn the doubles point. Kikawa and Kadowaki had four match points for a 6-3 win, but the duo from Austin Peay showed resilience to come back and win the match in a tiebreaker.
In singles play, the Racers only needed one victory to win the match due to defaults. Kikawa made quick work of Austin Peay's Ayden Kujawa, clinching the match for the first time in her Racer career. Alexeyeva had an impressive 6-1, 6-2 win to give her a 3-0 lead in her match. Newcomer Rebecca Widan secured a bounce-back victory in her first college match for the Racers.
Chaikovskaia split the first two sets before going down 9-7 in the third-set 10-pt tie-breaker. She saved both match points and was able to secure a 12-10 victory. This gave the Racers a 7-0 sweep over Austin Peay and their third consecutive win over the Governors.
The Racers wrapped up their weekend against Louisiana Tech on Saturday. The Bulldogs' #1 doubles duo played a flawless match to defeat Kadowaki and Kikawa with a score of 6-1. The 101st nationally ranked duo of Alexeyeva and Campigotto fought for another dominant victory, 6-1. The duo is now 12-1 this season and with six-straight wins. LA Tech was able to find a break and win the doubles point with a 6-2 victory in the second match.
In singles, Chaikovskaia continues her impressive season with a straight-set victory, now holding a 17-3 in singles play this season. The Bulldogs won the next four of six sets. This mountain proved to be too much for the young Racer team to climb.
Alexeyeva, Kikawa, Melato and Kadowaki fought hard but came up short, resulting in a 5-1 team win for Louisiana Tech. Senior, Paola Campigotto was leading her match 7-5, 3-4 before play was halted due to the match being clinched.
"We learned a lot about ourselves this weekend and the things we need to work on," said Head Coach Jorge Caetano. "We did a great job overall with the things we control but we let the nerves come into play a little bit making us play hesitant at times and at this level it will cost you matches. The energy was great and we did a fantastic job supporting each other but the biggest takeaway from this weekend is we must continue to focus on the process rather than the result so we can grow as a team and play our best tennis come March and April."
Players Mentioned
