MIAA Play Begins For Emporia State Women's Tennis

Women's Tennis | 3/24/2025 12:00:00 PM

Emporia State Hornet Women (5-5, 0-0 MIAA)
vs. 
Newman Jets (4-9, 0-0 MIAA)
Tuesday, March 25 • 2:00 p.m.
Kossover Family Tennis Center • Emporia, Kan.
Live Video: The MIAA Network
Up Next: vs. Central Oklahoma
Friday, March 28 • 2:00 p.m.
Kossover Family Tennis Center • Emporia, Kan.

MIAA OPENER
The Emporia State women's tennis team takes on Newman in the MIAA opener for both teams.

SPRING BREAK RECAP
The Hornets went 0-3 on their trip to Florida, falling 4-3 to Lewis and 5-2 to #31 UT-Tyler in Orlando along with a 5-2 loss to Texas A&M-Kingsville in Cocoa Beach. Perla Conde went 3-0 in #3 singles last week while Giovanna Ferreira picked up a win at #1 singles against #31 UT-Tyler.
 
COACHES
Former Hornet CyCy Peyroche is 10-17 in her second full season as the permanent coach of the Emporia State women's program. She took over as the interim coach for both teams in December of 2022. She went 6-9 with the men's team and 5-13 in women's action as the interim coach. Peyroche was 23-15 in singles play during her three years as a Hornet before moving into the graduate assistant position.  
John Blackburn is 20-11 in his second season as the head men's coach and Director of Tennis at Emporia State. He spent the previous eight seasons as the head coach at NCAA Division III Methodist University in Fayetteville, N.C. He went 117-58 overall with a 54-4 record in conference play, winning three regular season conference championships, two conference tournament championships and made two NCAA Tournament appearances. He was also a head coach at Eastern Illinois, Coker College and Palm Beach Atlantic. 

QUICK LOOK AT THE HORNETS
The Emporia State women are 5-5 on the season. The Hornets are undefeated at home this season with a 4-0 record against four year schools and two exhibition wins against junior colleges at the Kossover Family Tennis Center. They have gone 1-1 this spring against nationally ranked teams with a 4-3 win over then #38 Rockhurst on March 8 and a 5-2 loss to then #31 UT-Tyler on March 18. 
Giovanna Ferreira has a 4-5 mark at #1 singles this spring and is 8-12 overall. Perla Conde is 12-7 overall,  5-2 in the spring with a 5-1 record at #3 singles and was named MIAA Female Athlete of the Week on March 12. Paige Stranghoner is 13-6 overall and has a spring record of 5-3, 4-3 at the #6 position. Lilie Bizouerne is 4-4 this spring with a 2-1 mark at #3 singles and 2-3 record at #4 and is 7-12 overall. She was the MIAA Athlete of the Week earlier this spring. Anastasia Pesic is 8-4 overall and 5-3 this spring, 3-2 at #5 and 2-1 at #4 singles. Sheriden Wichman is 4-2 this spring with matches at the #3, #4, and #5 spots. She is 10-8 overall. Yuliya Klimova is 3-6 at #2 singles and 0-1 at the #1 spot this spring and is 8-12 overall. 
The women have used eight different doubles combinations this spring. The team of Klimova and Pesic is 5-3 this spring with a 3-1 mark at #3 doubles. Conde and Wichman are 4-2 in the spring with a 3-2 mark at the #2 spot. Bouerne and Stranghoner have played eight matches at the #1 position with a 2-6 record.

KNOW THE FOE
Newman is 4-9 on the year and have won their last two duals, 4-0 vs. Texas A&M-Texarkana and 7-0 against William Jewell.
Dana Issabayeva is 9-6 on the year with a 3-5 record in the spring.

LAST TIME VS NEWMAN
The Emporia State women fell at Newman 4-3 in a match that went down to a tiebreaker in the third set of the final match.
The doubles point went to Newman as they won 6-2 at #1 and 6-4 at #2 before Perla Conde Vendrell and Sheriden Wichman prevailed 6-4 at #3 doubles.
Paige Stranghoner quickly evened the dual with a 6-2, 6-1 win at #6 singles for the Hornets before the Jets got a 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 win at #1 and a 6-2, 6-4 win at #3 to go up 3-1.  Anastasia Pesic won 6-4, 6-4 at #5 singles and Giovanna Ferreira won 6-2, 7-5 at #4 to bring Emporia State back into a 3-3 tie.  The deciding match between ESU's Lilie Bizouerne and Newman's Ani Zeikidze would go to a tie breaker in the third set before Zeikidze pulled out the 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) win to clinch the win for the Jets.

HOW TOUGH IS IT?
The MIAA has three of the top 50 women's teams in NCAA Division II with Washburn ranked #5, Neb.-Kearney #14, and Northwest Missouri at #47 this week. Six MIAA women's teams have been ranked this spring with five of the six being in the rankings multiple times. Four of the six teams in the Central Regional last year were from the MIAA and seven of the current ten members of the association have made multiple NCAA Tournament appearances.
Six of the top 50 men's teams in the nation are from the MIAA/GAC with three North Division and three South Division teams. Washburn is ranked #5, Emporia State is #23 and Neb.-Kearney is #29 out of the North while the South has Harding at #14, Ouachita Baptist is ranked #44 and Southern Arkansas is #50. Eight of the current 11 members of the MIAA/GAC alliance have made multiple NCAA Tournament appearances.

EMPORIA STATE IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
The Emporia State women have a 5-5 record in five appearances in the NCAA Tournament, highlighted by a trip to the Sweet 16 in 2007. They made their first appearance in 2005 with a 5-1 win over Colorado Mesa before falling 5-1 to Northwest Missouri in the second round.  The Hornets beat Washburn 5-3 in the first round of 2006 and dropped a 5-4 decision to Northwest Missouri in the second round.  In 2007 they picked up a 5-1 win over Colorado Mesa and a 5-2 win over Neb.-Omaha before falling 5-0 to eventual national champion BYU-Hawaii in the round of 16. ESU completed a five year run of appearances with a 5-3 win over Washburn and a 5-2 loss to Northwest Missouri in 2008.  The most recent NCAA tournament was a 5-0 loss to Augustana in 2014. 
The Hornet men have made two appearances in the NCAA Tournament. They lost 5-1 in the first round to Washburn in 2007 and to Northwest Missouri 5-1 in the first round in 2008.
 
UP NEXT
The next action for the Emporia State women Emporia State will be Friday, March 28 against Central Oklahoma. First serve from the Kossover Family Tennis Center is set for 3:00 p.m.