The start of another spring season meant another trip to Eastern Kentucky for the SIU men’s tennis team. But a shot at a perfect weekend of play was marred by losses in doubles matches.

The Salukis defeated Wright State and Lipscomb, but came up short in three doubles matches against EKU.

The 2-1 record is nothing to sneeze at considering the Salukis’ 3-0 sweep that came out of last year’s trek to Richmond, Ky. SIU head coach Missy Jeffrey attributes this year’s outcome to improvements made by the opposition, not any slippage on the Salukis behalf.

“Both teams [Wright State and Lipscomb] improved a lot so they were real good quality matches for us to have,” Jeffery said. “We’ve improved, we’re definitely a better team. The fact that Wright State beat Eastern Kentucky shows how much stronger they got.”

Jeffery said early-season jitters and a temporary inability to deal with pressure hurt the Salukis against EKU.

“At times we were able to handle the pressure better then they were, but when it came down to it, they handled the pressure better than we did and that made the difference,” Jeffrey said.

SIU comes into the spring season as a veteran-laden group.

“We have three seniors on the team this year so this is absolutely the most experienced team we’ve had since I’ve been coaching here,” said Jeffrey, now in her fifth-year as head coach.

Last year’s tennis media guide features junior Bojan Ilievski and senior Lukasz Soswa on the cover. The duo once again lived up to their status as leaders on the team by finishing 2-0 in their doubles matches versus Wright State and Lipscomb.

Upperclassmen who were recruited to the school and molded by Jeffery have come together with transfers like senior Alex Nomicos, from Oklahoma, and sophomore Rodrigo Lama, from South Carolina State. Both were targeted by Jeffery and were won over by the rising SIU program.

On top of this lies talented newcomer Nick Bauer, who was 2-0 in individual matches versus EKU and Lipscomb.

Jeffery sees a conference champion in her team, one that was born in the brisk fall breeze and looks to come to full maturation at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in the midst of springtime.

“We are in a good place right now. We have a tough team and a very mentally tough team,” Jeffrey said.

“I told them maybe it was a good thing we lost this match to Eastern Kentucky cause it’s going to motivate us just that much more and it shows just how little things, little bitty things can make a difference in a match sometimes,” Jeffrey said.

Reporter Kyle Means can be reached at [email protected]