Women's Tennis slides past Saint Louis, 4-3

March 24, 2012

By Tim McCaughan
SIUSalukis.com

SAINT LOUIS, Mo. - The Southern Illinois men's tennis team could not get anything going against Vincennes University on Saturday at University Courts, losing to the Trailblazers, 6-1.

Vincennes (12-3), a junior college powerhouse ranked No. 3 overall in the NJCAA tennis rankings, extended its current winning streak to 11 matches with the victory over the Salukis (4-7, 0-0 MVC). The Trailblazers dominated singles, especially positions two through five where they yielded four games only once.

The lone Saluki match-point came courtesy of freshman Szymon Opieczonek, who won in both singles and doubles. Opieczonek defeated VU's Edward Spilman, 6-4, 4-6, 10-3, at No. 6 singles, and he -- along with junior Orhan Spahic-- won at No. 3 doubles against VU's Spilman and Rafael Bulnes, 8-5.

This marks the second straight year the Salukis have fallen to the Trailblazers. Last year, Southern lost 4-3 in heartbreaking fashion in doubles, having split singles three matches apiece.

"Vincennes is a strong team," said head coach Dann Nelson. "There's a reason they're nationally ranked. They lost a lot of players from last year, but they just reloaded."

The loss also brings Southern to 2-2 at home on the dual match season where they have been historically successful with Nelson at the helm. A Nelson coached Saluki team has never lost more than four matches at home in a single season.

"For me, I don't think that we were prepared enough for today to battle a tough team," Nelson said. "We just didn't bring our game today. We need to change a few things in practice and hopefully we can do that soon."