PENSACOLA, Fla. – All four Southeastern Louisiana freshmen finished undefeated in singles play as the tennis team put together an impressive showing at the University of West Florida Fall Fling this weekend on the UWF campus.
 
Southeastern saw Reginka Nychytailova, Sarah Kriem, Nastya Tokareva and Renee Villarreal all advance to the semifinals of the top singles flight. In doubles play, the Lions' top tandem of Nychytailova and Kriem advanced to the doubles final.
 
Southeastern head coach Jason Hayes was impressed with what he saw from his young Lions.
 
“Overall, we continue to be very pleased with how hard we're playing,” Hayes commented. “We continue to see steady improvement each time out and we're a better team than we were in the opening tournament. We have some things we need to continue improving on, but the future of our program is very bright.”
 
Rather than have his four semifinalists play out the remainder of the tournament, Hayes elected to forgo the final two rounds of the bracket.
 
“We felt we had accomplished what we wanted to in singles play this weekend,” Hayes commented. “We have a tough tournament at Southern Miss next weekend and we didn't see the sense wearing down our players after a long weekend of competition.”
 
In doubles play, Nychytailova and Kriem continue to prove a formidable pairing. The duo picked up three more wins this week, before falling in the finals to West Florida's No. 1 team. After winning the top flight at the season opening Ragin' Cajun Classic, the Lion pair is now 6-1 on the year.
 
Hayes highlighted two singles wins as particularly impressive. Kriem rolled past No. 1 seed Monika Kochanova of West Florida, a Clemson transfer, by the score of 6-3, 6-0. Villarreal took out the No. 3 seed, Luiza Sonnervig of West Florida, 6-3, 3-6, 10-8.
 
The final tournament of the fall season next week at the USM Invitational should provide a good test for the Lions, according to Hayes.
 
“The Southern Miss tournament always has a good field,” Hayes said. “We have several of our Southland rivals competing, as well as several other talented teams from around the area. We'll have a good sense of where we are after next weekend.”
 
The USM Invitational runs Friday through Sunday in Hattiesburg, Miss.