BELLEVILLE, Ill. – McKendree University women's tennis suffered its second straight 7-0 setback here Saturday afternoon as the Bearcats fell to Lewis University in Great Lakes Valley Conference action at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC).
 
With the loss, McKendree falls to 6-8 overall and 0-3 in the league, while Lewis improved to 11-4 overall and 1-1 in the GLVC.
 
The teams began Friday's match by playing doubles and in doubles, the Flyers earned the doubles point as they won all three doubles matches to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
In doubles play, McKendree's No. 1 team of junior Viola Cipriani (Arezzo, Italy/Liceo Classico Francesco Petrarca) and sophomore Camilla Fonseca (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Saber) fell 6-2 to Lewis' No. 1 team of Nefeli Zafeiri and Casey Smith. Cipriani and Fonseca are now 7-6 on the season in doubles.
 
At No. 2 doubles, sophomore Rhyan Cook (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington North) and junior Mariana Caicedo Mora (Cucuta, Colombia/American International School of Mallorca) fell 6-3 to Lewis' duo of Anastasiya Salenko and Joie Reisch.
 
Lewis also picked up a 6-1 win at the No. 3 spot as sophomores Maria Vitoria Salomao (Minas Geraids, Brazil/Belo Horizonte) and Emily Kettering (Bloomington, Ill./Normal Community West) fell to Lewis' Jovana Vujanic and Grace Sueflohn.
 
With Lewis holding a 1-0 lead in the match after doubles, the teams turned to singles play and the Bearcats won a total of 29 games across six singles matches, including playing a third set at No. 2 singles.
 
In singles play, Cipriani fell 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 1 spot to Salenko, while Salomao suffered a 6-0, 6-2 loss at No. 3 spot to Smith.
 
Fonseca would play a third set at No. 2 singles as she won the first set against Zafeiri, 6-4, before falling 6-1 in the second set to force a third set. Zafeiri would prevail 6-3 in the third set.
 
Cook would suffer a 7-5, 6-3 loss at the No. 4 spot to Vujanic.
 
Mora lost at the No. 5 spot 6-4, 6-1 to Reisch and Kettering suffered a 6-2, 6-1 loss at the No. 6 spot against Sueflohn.
 
The Bearcats will return to action on Friday, April 15 with a 2 p.m. match at SWIC against Southwest Baptist, before playing an 11 a.m. match in Evansville, Ind., on Saturday, April 16 against Southern Indiana. The SBU match was originally scheduled for Sunday, April 17, but was rescheduled for April 15.