EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The SIUE women's tennis team dropped their Ohio Valley Conference opening match against Jacksonville State, 6-1 Saturday, at the Edwardsville YMCA.

"Today we took some positive steps forward that we didn't have a week ago," Head Coach Nick Mueller said.

Lara Tupper had the lone point for SIUE (0-12, 0-1) by winning her No. 1 singles match against Genevie Ulanday (JSU) 6-4, 6-4.  

"I feel like my game is starting to come together recently and that showed in how I played today." Tupper added.

Raillane Kamdem played her No. 3 singles match close, but fell in the tie-breaker to Elena Tendero (JSU) 4-6, 7-6, 11-9.  

"Lara made some changes in her approach today, and they paid off," said Mueller. "Raillance was two points away from another win, and battled extremely hard."

In No. 2 doubles play, the JSU duo of Alba Buechner and Malin Buechner defeated SIUE's Kamdem and Katherine Lahue 6-2. The No. 1 doubles match between Tupper / Ann-Christine Link and Ulanday / Tendero wasn't finished due to the Cougars falling in the other doubles matches.

"We will try to build from this going into the Eastern Illinois match next week," added Mueller.

The Cougars will travel to play Eastern Illinois Tuesday, match time set for 2 p.m.