O'FALLON, Ill. – The McKendree University women's tennis team opened its 2022 spring schedule here Friday with a 6-1 setback to the University of Missouri-St. Louis (UMSL) in  a non-conference match at the St. Clair Tennis Center.

With the setback, McKendree falls to 2-2 on the season, while UMSL is 1-0.

The Bearcats opened Friday's match by playing in strong in doubles as they won two of the three doubles matches to earn the doubles point – which would be the only point of the match for the Bearcats.

"We did a great job capturing the doubles point, but unfortunately didn't maintain the momentum. Kudos to Coach Holdridge and her players bounced back strong in singles play," McKendree head coach René Vidal said. "For us, we'll continue to get better every day."

UMSL opened the meet by posting a win at No. 3 doubles as Maja Lietzeu and Clara Lopez Bueno defeated junior Maria Vitoria Salomao (Minas Geralds, Brazil/Belo Horizonte) and sophomore Emily Kettering (Bloomington, Ill./Normal Community West).

The Bearcats, though, would come right back and pick up a win at the No. 1 spot as sophomore Camilla Fonseca (Rio de Janerio, Brazil/Colegio Saber) and junior Viola Cipriani (Arezzo, Italy/Liceo Classico Francesco Petrarca) posted a 6-3 win over Odette Beagrie and Leticia Lunge.

Sophomore Rhyan Cook (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington North) and junior Mariana Caicedo Mora (Cucuta, Colombia/American International School of Mallorca) teamed up to win 6-4 at the No. 2 spot over Anna Domingo and Tara Erler to win the doubles point.

Following doubles action, the teams would play six singles matches and the Tritons would win all six of the matches to post the match victory.

In singles, the Bearcats won win a total of 46 games in the six singles matches, including Cipriani falling in three sets to Domingo at the No. 2 spot. Cipriani would win the first set, 6-0, before Domingo came back to win the second set, 7-5 to force a third set. In the third set, the two players would go back-and-forth until Domingo would ultimately prevail, 6-4.

Salomao and Caicedo Mora each lost by identical 6-3, 7-5 scores at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots respectively, while Cook fell 6-3, 6-3 at the No. 3 spot to Lunge.

The Bearcats will return to the courts next Sunday, Feb. 27 as they host Webster University in an 8:30 p.m. match at the St. Clair Tennis Center.