DENTON, Texas – The Northwestern State tennis team closed out its first fall competition Sunday at the the Diving Eagle Invitational hosted by North Texas with a standout performance from junior Honoka Umeda, who captured the B Draw championship, while three other Lady Demons earned singles victories in Sunday’s Round of 16.
Umeda capped her strong weekend by defeating UT Arlington’s Vanja Cado 6-2, 6-3 in the B Draw final.
“Honoka stayed focused throughout the entire match,” said third-year head coach Marcos Morelli, who led last spring’s team to a share of the Southland Conference championship. “She followed the right process all weekend and kept improving with each match she played.”
In the main singles draw, junior Maria Farina and senior Zoi Spyrou each delivered steady performances.
Farina topped North Texas’ Lilly Schultz 7-5, 6-1, while Spyrou earned a 6-3, 6-4 decision over UTA’s Elizaveta Mladentseva.
With Umeda, Farina, and Spyrou all picking up wins on Sunday, Morelli emphasized the value of veteran leadership.
“It’s important for our upperclassmen to set the example,” he said. “Their ability to perform on the court and lead off it provides a standard for our newcomers to follow.”
VOLLEYBALL: The Demons showed some competitive strides Friday and Saturday in Denton, capping tournament play Saturday when they lost in four sets to the North Texas Mean Green (25-18, 23-25, 25-19 and 25-13) at the UTA-UNT Classic.
Friday, after opening the event being toppled by the Little Rock Trojans 3-0 (26-24, 25-15 and 25-13), the Demons (1-11) took undefeated UT-Arlington s to five sets before falling 3-2 (25-15, 19-25, 25-17, 21-25 and 15-13).
NSU remains on the road for three more matches until beginning Southland Conference play Sept. 25 in Prather Coliseum against UIW.
CROSS COUNTRY: In the first regular season home races for Northwestern State in a decade, it was appropriate that the most veteran members of the teams took center stage and led the way in the Pre-SLC Meet previewing the course that will be used late next month in the 2025 Southland Conference Cross Country Championships.
John Klein, a fifth-year senior, placed 10th in a stacked race full of Southland Conference members, clocking a personal-best 19:07.25 in the men’s 6K on Friday evening. That led a group of six Demons.
On the women’s side, it was Lalaina Wood, who ran a 16:23.42 in the women’s 4K, also leading a group of six, as she finished 24th overall.
“It is really great to be able to run at the home course,” head coach Payten Vidourek said. “I am satisfied with how the men and women ran today. There is a lot of room to improve for us, but it was a solid first race on the home course.”
Klein’s run was his third consecutive top 10 finish after finishing second and third in his first two meets of the season.
“It was a solid effort, I would say,” Klein said. “I was definitely a bit too excited there at the beginning and got out kind of hot at the beginning of the race, but I’d like to think I closed pretty well there at the end. But overall, it was a good effort, a good pre-test.”
“I am feeling OK,” Wood said. “I always try to do better. I had a goal in mind that I did not achieve, but a PR is a PR, and it just motivates me to keep pushing harder and reach the goals I set for myself.”