No. 8 Loyola battles close in 4-3 loss to No. 10 LSUA

NEW ORLEANS – The No. 8 Loyola Wolf Pack women's tennis team played its first home match of the 2026 season on Thursday, taking on #10 LSU Alexandria at the City Park Tennis Center.

Loyola won the doubles point but lost four matches in singles to fall 4-3, dropping the Wolf Pack's overall record to 1-4 this season. All five matches have been played against teams currently in the top 10 in the NAIA rankings. 

LSUA started off doubles with a 6-1 win on court 2, but the Pack toughed out wins on doubles courts 1 and 3. Micaela Ponce and Adele Fereres secured their first win of the season, 6-4 over the top Generals duo. 

Avery Frierson and Sofia Amodu were cruising at 5-2 on court 3 before their opponents won two games in a row. Frierson and Amodu then faced break point at 30-40 before rallying for two consecutive points to clinch their match and the doubles point. 

In singles, the Generals quickly won matches on the top three courts, but the other three courts all went to deciding third sets. Presha Shanthamoorthi and Avrora Volkova both won the first set in their matches, while Fereres dropped her first set but stormed back to win the next two while only dropping three total games between them.

The match came down to courts 5 and 6, with Loyola needing both to claim the team win, but LSUA won on court 6 before Shanthamoorthi swept a third set tiebreak. 

Head Coach Matt Llewellyn

"It's always very tough to lose a match that one singular point could've potentially given us the win 4-3 instead of losing 3-4. That is college tennis, it's all part of it. However, we win and lose as a team. 

We've played very solid teams and we are learning a lot about each other. Our young players are coming along nicely. 

So far, overall we lack both competitive leadership and maturity especially from some of our seniors playing in key positions. It's unacceptable and is not inline with our program core values. It's my responsibility and I will do whatever I can to fix it."

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Results

No. 8 Loyola – 3

No. 10 LSU Alexandria – 4

Doubles
1. Ponce/Fereres (LOYNO) def. Echaide/Rajawat (LSUA) 6-4
2. Ivanova/Stuurman (LSUA) def. Shanthamoorthi/Harris (LOYNO) 6-1
3. Frierson/Amodu (LOYNO) def. Orlova/Gonzalez (LSUA) 6-4
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3

Singles
1. #25 Nahia Echaide (LSUA) def. Micaela Ponce (LOYNO) 6-1, 6-3
2. Isabella Stuurman (LSUA) def. Avery Frierson (LOYNO) 6-4, 6-1
3. Joline Roesch (LSUA) def. Juliette Finch (LOYNO) 6-2, 6-1
4. Adele Fereres (LOYNO) def. Kanu Rajawat (LSUA) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
5. #34 Presha Shanthamoorthi (LOYNO) def. Lucie Ivanova (LSUA) 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7-0) 
6. Ekaterina Orlova (LSUA) def. Avrora Volkova (LOYNO) 3-6, 7-5, 6-1
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2, 4, 6, 5