By BRIAN TYPES

News Editor

After starting the season off strong, the Lady Techster tennis team has struggled and fallen to 8-9 on the year, after Tech lost three straight matches and five of its last six.

The team fell by a score of 4-3 in each of their last three matches.

Tech head coach Terrence DeJongh said the absence of sophomore Monica Kelly the previous two matches put the Lady Techsters in a hole from the start.

Tech consists of only six members. So the absence of any player forces a default in one singles and one doubles' match.

DeJongh said next year he hopes to have reserves in place.

"I've got to make sure I have at least seven, maybe eight to nine players so if something happens, I have a backup," DeJongh said. "[Against Northwestern State University and the University of Louisiana-Monroe] we only had five players. My No. 2 was out for those two matches, and that hurt us because you need six players."

"So that means you're giving up two points because you're not playing No. 3 doubles, and we only have five girls without playing the No. 6 singles' set."

DeJongh said that makes other players have to move up in the rotation.

"It's making it hard," DeJongh said. "But we give it a fight. We almost got those two even without the whole line-up. I like the effort the girls put in."

Against Northwestern, Tech lost three of five singles' matches, and the tie was broken with the match the Techsters were forced to default due to Kelly's absence.

The match with ULM saw Tech rebound in singles play from 2-0 with wins by seniors Holly Ready and Anabella Duque and junior Avril Martinez, but the two defaulted matches proved the difference once again.

Kelly returned strong versus the University of New Orleans but was unable to lift the team to a victory over a historically dominant program.

DeJongh said this year's match was the opposite of last year's.

"Last year we lost to them 4-3 also by losing the doubles' point," DeJongh said. "This year we came in and beat them in doubles but not singles. We needed three singles out of the six, and we got two. Just to be able to play close against UNO sends a message that we are right there with these tough schools."

Kelly boosted the team with victories in her singles' match and doubles' match with Martinez as her partner.

Martinez also won her singles' match, but Tech dropped the other four singles' matches, costing them the contest.