Southeast Missouri State tennis team earns first OVC win

The Southeast Missouri State women's tennis team notched its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season Thursday, beating visiting Tennessee State 7-0.

Southeast, which snapped a five-match losing streak, improved to 2-11 overall and 1-5 in OVC play. TSU is 0-12 and 0-6.

Freshman Elizabeth Nyenwe recorded her fifth consecutive singles victory and remained undefeated in OVC play. She romped 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 2 position, improving to 8-5, including 6-0 in conference matches.

Other singles winners for Southeast were sophomore No. 1 Nikole Novikova (6-0, 6-0), senior No. 3 Ashton Hartley (6-1, 6-1), sophomore No. 4 Laura Garcia (6-0, 6-0), freshman No. 5 Lauren Schaper (6-1, 6-1) and junior No. 6 Sarah Pettigrew (6-0, 6-2).

Winning in doubles were No. 1 Novikova-Nyenwe (8-0), No. 2 Garcia-Hartley (8-1) and No. 3 Schaper-Pettigrew (8-4).

The Redhawks play their final home match today, against Eastern Kentucky at 1 p.m.

Softball

The Southeast softball team started a six-game road swing Thursday with a 7-2 Ohio Valley Conference loss at Tennessee-Martin.

Southeast fell to 14-21 overall and 8-7 in OVC play. The Redhawks began the day fourth in the 11-team league. Third-place UTM improved to 21-14 and 10-3.

The Redhawks scored twice in the top of the first inning, but the Skyhawks scored the game's final seven runs.

Cheyenne Gipson had two of Southeast's six hits. Taylor Cowan drove in both runs.

Southeast returns to action this weekend with a three-game OVC series at Tennessee State.

Track

Southeast senior Samantha Espiricueta won her third straight OVC female outdoor field athlete of the week award for her performance at Saturday's Joey Haines Invitational hosted by Southeast.

Espiricueta captured her second javelin title in three outdoor meets this season. It was her third consecutive javelin title at the Joey Haines Invitational and her 12th career javelin title. She also was seventh in the hammer throw and ninth in the discus.

Espiricueta leads the OVC and ranks 13th nationally with a javelin throw of 159 feet, 9 inches. She also leads the OVC in the discus and ranks second in the hammer.

Southeast track teams compete this weekend at the Tom Botts Invitational hosted by the University of Missouri.

-- From staff reports