McNeese State University - Log Yearbook (Lake Charles, LA)

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ty me jave the team the poise and xperience it takes to win the ‘ight matches.’ The Pokes would start the season with a 9-0 blanking of Dentenary in Shreveport be- ore falling to Southwestern ».ouisiana in their home opener 38. | That was followed by a 5-1 victory over Southeastern Lou- ‘siana in Hammond setting the stage for the first major ac- somplishment of the year for ‘he Cowboys. | McNeese went from Ham- (nond on to Hattiesburg, MS, 0 take part in the 17th annual 3ig Gold Tournament at South- ern Mississippi, a tournament that would feature 31 teams, the largest in the event's histo- ry. The Cowboys also had the distinction of being the de- fending champion, a role which made the Pokes the ma- jor target for the other 30 teams entered. The Cowboys answered the challenge, leading from start to finish to capture the title for the second straight year, a feat never done before. The Pokes returned home for their first Southland Confer- ence encounter against de- fending SLC champion North- east Louisiana, a team which by midseason would be ranked 13th nationally. McNeese was no match for the Indians on that day with NLU taking an 8-1 victory, but the loss to NLU seemed to light a fire under the Cowboys, and they put together five Straight wins, three of those SLC victories to run their re- cord to 7-2. The win streak stopped at Baylor, however, as the Pokes dropped a 5-4 decision to the Bears. “That was a match that we let get away from us,” Holland said. ‘‘We had the better team, ow, left to right: Anders Osberg, Sergio Villa, Holland, Ulf Persson, Robinson Ureta, Pontus lohan Kjelisten, Rodrigo Arenas. Back row: Coach Lee Lavefalk, Johan Hallin. (Photo by B. Mericle) Bact Be eek Taking Advantage but we didn’t win the key points. We did learn from our mistakes, though.’ That loss again ignited McNeese. They took off on a six-match winning streak to run their record to 13-3 setting the state for a pivital match against 20th ranked Florida State in Tallahassee. McNeese put together one of its best performances of the year that day, but it wasn’t enough as the Pokes again fell 5-4. Despite the loss the Cow- boys were playing good ten- nis, and it was showing in the Continued » 1985 Men's Tennis Centenary SW LA SE LA NE LA Ark Nicholls TX-Arlington N Texas St Baylor SE LA Nicholls St. NW LA Houston Bapt Sam Houston S Alabama Florida St. W Florida La Tech Lamar a ie ne ee eee eae Se ae SW LA Tennis 153

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152 Sports Trying to keep a .700 season aver- age, senior Sergio Villa battles his opponent from Louisiana Tech. (Photo by B. Mericle) Freshman Laura Cadena of Mexico confers with her opponent from Houston Baptist before continuing the match. (Photo by J. Cates) Freshman Pontus Lavefalk of Swe- den gets good top spin from his serve. (Photo by G. Edwards)

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154 Sports Taking Advantage national rankings with Lavefalk cracking the top 100 at No. 72 and Kjellsten in at No. 99. ‘We knew after that Florida State match we could play with anyone,”’ said Holland. ‘‘We made up our minds then that we wouldn't lose again.’ And the Cowboys didn't, dropping West Florida 9-0 and then picking up SLC victories over Louisiana Tech 7-2 and Lamar 6-3 to enter the SLC tournament behind Northeast with a 5-1 league record and a 17-4 overall mark with two reg- ular season matches remain- ing. The singles records of the Cowboys were impressive with Lavefalk leading the way at 23-3 followed by Persson (21-3), Kjellsten (19-5), Ureta (19-6), Villa (19-7) and Osberg (17-6). The Cowgirls under Robi- que for the first season re- 1985 Women's Tennis SE LA Centenary Lamar NW LA Nicholls State New Orleans LA Tech Houston Bapt NW LA New Orleans Southern Miss Bethel College SW LA LA Tech Grambling Houston Bapt Sam Houston SW LA turned a good nucleus with SLC finalists Christina Wenn- berg and Sofi Tegerstrand back in the lineup from their sophomore and junior years. Also back were sophomore Maria Hinojosa, Maria Paradis, Lisa Perez, and freshmen Lau- ra Cadena and Laurie Lewis. A tough schedule may have been the best thing in the long run for the Cowgirls as they took their lumps, but also learned from their losses. A 3-6 record halfway through the season was as much as could be expected from this young team, but at that point things seemed to jell for the Cowgirls, and they won five of their next six matches to raise their record to 8-7. “Playing the good teams early really helped us, ’ said Robique. ‘‘We learned how to play against tough competi- tion, and that will help us when Front row, left to right: Lisa Perez, Sofi Tegerstrand, Laura Cadena, Maria Hinojosa, Christina Wennberg. the SLC tournament comes around.’ Victories over Grambling and Sam Houston coupled with a loss to Houston Baptist put the Cowgirls 9-8 on the year with two matches and SLC tournament remaining. Wennberg topped the Cow- girls in singles play putting to- gether a 15-6 mark followed by Tegerstrand (13-7), Cadena (12-8), Perez (11-8), Paradis (7- 8), Hinojosa (7-8) and Lewis (3- oS): Doubles may have been the biggest surprise of the year. The Cowgirls showed solid performances all season with Cadena and Perez topping the team at No. 2 with a 9-2 mark. Cadena also teamed with Hinojosa to put together a 6-2 slate followed by Lewis and Perez at 5-3. Back row: Kay Buck, Laurie Lewis, Jeanne Soullier, Leading the team in wins was Chris- tina Wennberg, a sophomore from Sweden. (Photo by D. Smith) +++ +4 ptt tN Sal 1) OD eS ist | tte q i! fad oe Oi Ee Se Os es ' + : + J 4 4 + q Gail Prats, Marie Paradis, Coach Ann Roubiqu (Photo by B. Mericle) Ae =%