MOBILE, Ala. – South Alabama Women's Tennis opened the season with a strong start to the season Thursday, defeating West Alabama 6-1 at Bruce David Lubel Memorial Tennis Courts.
 
The victory improved South Alabama to 1-0 for the season.
 
Thursday's match started with doubles and the Jaguars quickly got to work to claim the doubles point. Rio Maeda and Delien Kleinhans first claimed a 6-3 victory at the No. 2 spot before Manal Ennaciri and Lara van der Merwe won 6-4 at the No. 1 spot. Those two victories gave USA a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
The match then moved to singles where the Jags won three quick matches to claim the four necessary team points for the victory. van der Merwe defeated her opponent 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 5 spot before Chems Doha Zeghlouli won 6-1, 6-2 at No.4. Needing just one more point to clinch the win, Kleinhans secured a 6-2, 6-2 win in the No. 1 spot to wrap up the win.
 
Multiple matches also took extra points to complete, and Jade Marie was the first to earn a hard-fought victory. After winning the first set 6-2 at the No. 6 spot, the second set went to a tiebreak before she won that tiebreak 7-4 to claim a 6-2, 7-6 victory. Ennaciri also faced a tough task, losing the second set in tiebreak fashion to force a super tiebreak in the second set. She claimed that third set tiebreak, 10-7, and secured the match 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 10-7.
 
South Alabama will be on the court again on Sunday when it faces West Florida at 2 p.m. CT.
 
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