Box Score Beaumont, Texas - The New Orleans Privateers women's tennis team (10-10, 4-7) clinched a spot in the Southland Conference tournament with a 5-2 victory over the Lamar Cardinals (5-15, 3-8) on Sunday. The win closed the regular season at a 10-10 overall mark for New Orleans.
Claudette Gilhespie earned the clinching point to give the Privateers the victory and she did it in dramatic fashion. Gilhespie won the first set 6-3 but lost the second 6-4. Gilhespie then was taken to a tiebreak in the third set, but prevailed 8-6 to earn the point that will send New Orleans to the conference tournament.
The Privateers started the day with a strong statement by winning the doubles point.
Anja Luethi and
Mar Gendra began the proceedings with a 6-3 victory at flight three.
Trang Dao and
Yurina Asai picked up a victory at flight one by a 6-2 score to give New Orleans a 1-0 lead.
In singles, Lamar picked up the first two points. Luethi had to retire from her match before the third set. Jasmin Buchta engineered a straight set victory at flight one to give the Cardinals a narrow advantage, but the Privateers bounced back behind their remaining four players in the rotation.
Gendra picked up her sixth conference win to get the Privateers back level at 2-2. Gendra endured through a tiebreaker in the first set. The second set was almost equally as long. Gendra won 7-6 (7-2), 7-5) to get the Privateers back on even terms.
Asai also picked up a singles victory by rallying back from an early deficit. After losing the first set 6-2, Asai won the next two sets 6-1, 6-3 to push the New Orleans lead to 3-2.
The Privateers will wait to find out their seed and opponent for the tournament which begins on Apr. 27 in Beaumont, Texas.
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