ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist women's tennis team opened the 2013 season with a shutout loss to McKendree University 9-0 in Belleville, Ill.
Missouri Baptist had difficulty putting points on the board in both singles and doubles. At the beginning of the match, the No. 1 doubles team of Elise Beckenmeier and Hannah Wadlow fell to the team of Adriana and Guiliana Gonzalez 8-0 to begin play.
The same result occurred at No. 2 doubles as the team of Kelcie Comley and Nathalia Oliveria defeated MBU's Nicole Zevlever and Haley Grueber 8-0 to give McKendree a 2-0 lead.
The Bearcats took the final doubles match as the team of Alexandria Peach and Melanie Young beat MBU's Shelby Mund and Sheena Payton 8-4 heading into singles play with a 3-0 lead.
As singles play began, it took Missouri Baptist until the No. 5 match between McKendree's Lauren Putbrese and MBU's Mund. The Missouri Baptist freshman managed to win one game of the second set in the loss.
Sheena Payton followed that performance up with the most competitive match of the day in a 6-1, 6-2 loss. Overall, the Bearcats displayed a very talented NCAA Division II squad against a young Spartan team.
MBU will return home to host the first home competition of the season on Saturday, 2/23 at 12:30 p.m. at CBC when Judson University comes to town.
