The Valparaiso University tennis team opened the spring slate on Sunday with a challenging match against defending Ohio Valley Conference champion SIUE. The Beacons picked up a singles win and forced third sets on four of the other five courts, but the visiting Cougars prevailed 4-1 at The Courts of Northwest Indiana.
 
How It Happened

• Valpo won the third doubles match by default, while SIUE pulled away at No. 2 doubles, so the doubles point hinged on the No. 1 match featuring Moira Silva (Houston, Texas / Houston Tennis Academy) and Brynn Steven (Wichita, Kan. / Bishop Carroll) against SIUE's Gorman/Rogers. Valpo broke serve in the first game, but SIUE won the next three games to go up 3-1. The Beacons broke to make it 3-2, but then SIUE won a pivotal game to go up 4-2 and eventually won the match 6-3.
• The singles matches were tightly played, with Valpo taking the first set on three courts and the Cougars taking the opening set on the other three courts. The first match to finish was at No. 3, where Jolene Fernandes (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) rolled to a 6-0, 6-2 win over Cydney Rogers to even the team match score at 1-1.
• SIUE won both sets at No. 5 to regain the lead in the team score at 2-1. All four remaining matches went to a third set with Valpo needing to win three of the four decisive sets in order to take the team match.
• On the No. 6 singles court, Lillian Kelly (Fullerton, Calif. / Fullerton Union) rallied from behind in the first set to take the opener 6-4 over Stefaniya Anikina, but the Cougars rebounded to take the next two sets in that match, building up a 3-1 lead in the team score with three matches remaining, all hinging on the third set.
• At No. 1 Singles, Silva held a 5-3 advantage before Amelia Gorman forced a set breaker at 6-6, but Silva took the tiebreak 7-3, winning the final three points of the breaker. Gorman won the second set 6-4 and eventually the third set 6-2, clinching the team victory for the guests.
• Two tight singles matches went unfinished since the teams used a clinch-clinch format. At No. 2 singles, freshman Naomi Lalonde (Mississauga, Ontario, Canada) lost the first set 4-6 and faced a 0-3 deficit in the second set, but she surged back to take Set 2 7-5 by winning the final four games in succession. She had Payton Tomichek on the ropes in the breaker, leading 5-4 when play was halted.
• At No. 4 Singles, Steven battled back from losing the first set 2-6 to prevail 6-4 in the second, a set in which she raced out to a 3-0 lead before holding on to win. The decisive third set was deadlocked 6-6 with Paige Duncan and the tiebreaker was taking place when the match went final.  

Inside The Match

• With her singles win, Fernandes entered double figures in the win column, improving her singles record to 10-3 on the year including an unblemished 4-0 mark in dual matches. She increased her career win total to 25 over two seasons.
• The Cougars were the preseason favorites to win the Ohio Valley Conference. They hoisted the OVC crown, went 18-4 overall and 5-1 in league play and took the conference tournament title en route to an NCAA Tournament appearance last season.
• Lalonde's match was against Gorman, who is a two-time All-OVC performer and was the league's Freshman of the Year in 2022-23.  

Up Next
Valpo will host Western Michigan on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. at The Courts of Northwest Indiana.