Women’s Tennis returns this weekend to start their season at home at Southern Miss. After four months of rest, Southern Miss’s women’s tennis team debuted at home with back-to-back matches versus Jackson State University on Friday and Sam Houston University on Saturday. The Golden Eagles were supposed to start their season the previous weekend in Natchitoches to take on Northwestern State University, but that match was cancelled. Now, Southern Miss has a massive opportunity to start their season at home.
Head Coach Piyanart Engineer shared the team’s excitement going into the first matches.
“We just prepare ourselves, everyone works hard,” said Engineer. “So, we try to train them in the fall, and now this is the time in the spring for them to compete. So, everyone’s excited to play the first home match.”
The hard work paid off. Southern Miss opened up their match with three doubles games to try and claim the first point for the Golden Eagles. After a 6-4 win by graduate student Hannah Chambers and sophomore Miranda Xu and a 7-5 win by sophomore Sakura Sudo and freshman Kamornwan Kornsila, the Golden Eagles took their first point of the match.
Following the doubles games, Southern Miss played six singles matches, each match with three possible games. Each singles match earned either team a point, and the first team with 4 collective points across all games wins the match.
Miranda Xu and senior Angelina Blinova won their respective singles matches, but Jackson State claimed two points of their own to keep the match close. Now down 3-1, Jackson State claimed back to backgames to tie up the match, with one final game to decide the match. Kamornwan Kornsila managed to close out a narrow 7-6 victory in her final game to secure the Golden Eagles’ victory in their first-ever match.
But there was no time to rest because Southern Miss was back at it on Saturday versus Sam Houston. The Golden Eagles started well. Blinovia and Suda pulled off a 7-5 victory, and freshmen Pimmada Lim and Mia Hisashi-Morrissey secured a 6-4 victory to earn the Golden Eagles their first point of the match. Sam Houston battled back quickly, taking three straight singles matches to take a 3-1 lead over the Golden Eagles. Sophomore Gagana Mohan Kumar did manage to end the slide by taking her singles match in dominant fashion. But, Sam Houston pulled out the victory after Sam Houston’s Adi Venkatakrishnan pulled out another singles point, securing the 4-2 victory for the Bearkats.
Southern Miss looks to get another win at home this Friday, Feb.20, versus McNeese State.
