The women’s tennis team defeated tough competition within the MIAA Sept. 6 at the MIAA Fall Tournament.

The Lions gained three new freshmen for the fall season, Erin Fritz, Kristen Meschede and Barbara Gombosi, along with three returning starters. Head tennis coach Jane Posch said the new freshmen will be able to add depth to the program.

“Our new kids are Erin Fritz and Kristen Meschede, they’re both two hard hitting freshmen,” Posch said. “They’re really going to help us out in our depth, because last year we didn’t have any depth.”

She said during the spring season the team “never won anything at five and six singles and never won at three doubles.” Although there was a poor showing in the team’s depth, the Lions did place third in the conference. At the tournament, the women only lost two matches, Sheryl Posch and Meschede lost to the No. 1 doubles team of Northwest Missouri State University, 2-8. Fritz and Kim McMunn lost to the No. 3 doubles of Washburn, 5-8.

Meschede said the team “jelled” at the invitational. The doubles were being switched around during the tournament to keep the opposition on its feet.

“We switched up a lot of our players just to experiment, and see how certain people play,” Fritz said. “We have four freshmen on the team, that’s really well (the wins at the tournament) for freshmen coming in and playing that well.”

Jane Posch said Sheryl Posch will be taking the number one position and freshman Gombosi from Slovenia will be a contender for one of the top spots.

In other standings at the invitational, the Lions swept Missouri Western State College, the team also swept Emporia State University and Truman State University. Looking forward to the rest of the season, the Lions are optimistic.

“I think we have a great chance of doing well in conference,” Fritz said.

The Lions play next at Drury University.