2022 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI TENNIS GUIDE MARY BETH GUNN
MARY BETH GUNN HEAD COACH
T
he 021-22 season marks the seventh for Mary Beth Gunn as the head coach of the Southeast Missouri women’s tennis team. Gunn led the Redhawks to their first-ever Ohio Valley Conference Championship in 2021 with a program-best perfect 7-0 mark in league play for the top seed at the OVC Tournament in Evansville, Indiana. The tournament appearance was Gunn’s second straight and third in six seasons at SEMO. SEMO concluded the 2021 season with an overall record of 15-5 and finished as the OVC tournament runners-up. The Redhawks 15 wins in 2021 are their highest win total in 28 years as the 1993 SEMO team finished the season with a mark of 17-6 (6-1 OVC).
50
SEVENTH YEAR // UT MARTIN, 2008 & 2011 Gunn was awarded 2021 OVC Coach of the Year as SEMO swept the 2021 OVC women’s tennis awards. Romana Tarajova and Daniela Hlacikova combined to earn Player of the Year and Co-Freshman of the Year, respectively. Tarajova is the first-ever OVC Player of the Year in SEMO program history while Hlacikova is the fourth OVC Freshman of the Year at SEMO and third in Gunn’s six seasons at the helm. Tarajova and Hlacikova were also both tabbed to the 2021 All-OVC First Team while Ksenia Shikanova was selected to the 2021 All-OVC Second Team. The three All-OVC selections are a program-best for SEMO. Gunn also coached the doubles team of Kseniya Zonova and Teona Velkoska who ranked as high as 71st in
the 2021 Oracle Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I Women’s Rankings after a season-opening victory over Missouri’s top doubles team and #29-ranked Bronte Murgett and Marta Oliveira (9-5 in 2021). SEMO won the doubles point in every conference dual this season and jumped out to a 1-0 start in 15 of its 20 matches in 2021. The Redhawks went 14-3 in doubles matches against OVC opponents. Romana Tarajova teamed up with Kseniya Zonova for a team-best 11-3 doubles mark at the top slot including a 6-0 record during conference play. The doubles teams of Ksenia Shikanova and Lera Valeeva, and Daniela Hlacikova and Teona Velkoska both finished 2021 with 8-3 marks. Valeeva and Shikanova went 8-2 at no.
2021 OVC REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPIONS
2 doubles including 4-1 in the OVC. Hlacikova and Velkoska posted a 7-3 record at the final slot and were 4-2 in league matches. In singles, SEMO posted a 3210 mark against conference foes in 2021. Vivian Lai was perfect at the fifth singles slot, going 7-0, and did not drop a match against any OVC opponents this season including at the 2021 Tournament (2-0). Lai’s 16 singles wins tied for fifth all-time in SEMO program history for single-season wins and her 16-3 mark ranks tied for third for best single-season record. She was named OVC Women’s Tennis Player of the Week on April 21 and Tarajova was tabbed the OVC Women’s Tennis Player of the Week on March 17. Daniela Hlacikova, the 2021
