The Saint Louis University women’s tennis team dropped a pair of
matches last weekend at home to Butler on Friday afternoon, in a
close 4-3 decision, followed by a 6-1 loss to Conference-USA rival
Memphis on Sunday afternoon. The men’s team also slipped this
weekend, falling 5-2 to Butler and 5-3 to Southwest Missouri
State.

“I think Butler was a great match,” said senior Rebecca Steer.
“It was a very even match up from [No. 1 through No. 6]. Several
matches were very close, some going to three sets, which is very
promising considering that most of our opponents from here on out
will be very similar, talent-wise.”

Freshman Amanda Hellberg lost in the No. 1 singles match to
Christina Laun, 6-3, 6-4. Her doubles partner, Katerina Lozanova,
defeated Alaina Griffin in a 6-2, 6-3 No. 2 singles win. Hellberg
and Lozanova lost in the first doubles match, 8-1, to Griffin and
Laun.

“I personally think Amanda is going to be the next Julie Siemers
(2002 No. 1 singles player). She just has a great winning attitude;
she is very mentally sound and she has the most potential for a
freshman that I’ve ever seen,” Steer said.

The middle of SLU’s lineup split the Butler match, with Ana
Renda dropping No. 3 singles in a three-set match, where she won
the first game 6-1, but lost both the second and third 6-1. Melissa
Cutler won in the fourth singles slot, defeating Ana Gantz 7-5 and
6-1. Renda and Culter picked up the win at No. 2 doubles in a close
9-7 match against Taya Bailey and Laurel Clements.

To round out the Billikens’ outing, Lindsay Winninger lost No. 5
singles to Shaden Dowaitt, going three sets before falling 2-6,
6-3, 6-4. Steer picked up the final Billiken win against Kaitlyn
Elliot in a 6-3, 6-1 decision. Winninger and Steer lost the No. 3
doubles match 8-6.

On the men’s courts, Ikaika Jobe lost in the No. 1 singles match
to Butler’s Kevin Gill in three sets, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2; while No. 2
Thomas Kwong lost to Brandon Gill 6-2, 2-6, 6-2. Jobe and Kwong
defeated the Gill duo in doubles play in a heated 9-7 set.

Lance Vodicka and Tom de Larzac lost both the No. 3 and No. 4
singles matches and couldn’t muster a win in their doubles
bracket.

In the fifth slot, Taylor Curran picked up SLU’s only win on the
singles courts, enduring three long games to beat Michael Weaver
5-7, 7-6, 10-5. Curran’s doubles partner, Sanjeev Paramanathan,
lost in the sixth singles match to Evan West in a pair of 6-2
games, but the two collected a win in doubles to secure the doubles
point for SLU.

Sunday afternoon against Memphis, Lozanova picked up SLU’s only
win in the C-USA showdown. Hellberg lost 6-2, 6-2; while Lozanova
defeated the Tigers’ Viktoria Gruber in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
The two lost their doubles match 8-2.

“Memphis also had several close matches, which, again, means
that we are right in there with one of the better teams in the
conferences. The more we are able to grind out long matches, the
better we will get and the more prepared we will be by the
conference tournament in April,” Steer said.

Renda lost the No. 3 singles match in three sets to Andrea
Reichtinger and Cutler lost in the fourth spot to Kristin Noble. In
doubles action, Cutler and Renda did not fare any better, with
Reichtinger and Alex Tjioe slipping past the Billikens in a narrow
9-7 game.

Memphis’ Jessica Ares downed Winninger 6-3, 6-0 to claim the No.
5 win, while Steer and Tjioe were forced to cut their match down to
an eight-game pro-set (the same duration as doubles matches) when
SLU’s court time at the Sunset Hills Tennis Center expired. Steer
lost the engagement 8-2. In the final doubles match, Steer and
Winninger traded points with Ares and Christina Weiser, but the
Memphis duo took the match 8-5.

Against SMS on Sunday, Jobe powered past Pavel Hanek 6-2, 6-0 to
win the No. 1 singles honors, but he and Vodicka, who lost the No.
2 singles match, could not get past Havel and Jiri Spousta in the
doubles competition.

The pair of Vodicka and de Larzac also split their singles
matches, with Vodicka dropping the No. 3 match to Nenad Curcic 6-2,
6-3, and de Larzac winning 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 in the fourth slot against
Rishi Garbharran.

In No. 5 singles, Curran lost a grueling match in a pair of 7-6
games, while Paramanathan also lost his No. 6 singles match. Curran
and Paramanathan picked up the only Billiken win in doubles play by
defeating Garbharran and Predrag Pavlicic 8-2.

This weekend, the women will have a long road stretch, beginning
with another C-USA match against the University of
Alabama-Birmingham on Friday. Saturday, the team will head to the
other side of town to play Birmingham Southern, before another
non-conference match on Sunday against Middle Tennessee State.

The men will also head south to Texas to face Texas A&M,
UT-San Antonio and UT-Pan American. The Billikens will return home
for men’s and women’s matches in St. Louis next weekend.