DES MOINES, IOWA — The South Dakota Coyotes women's tennis team fell 5-2 to Drake on Saturday afternoon at the Roger Knapp Tennis Center in Des Moines, Iowa. 
 

Drake claimed the early momentum by sweeping the doubles point. The Bulldogs opened doubles play with a 6-1 victory on court one as Maja Dodik and Jordane Dookie defeated Kayleigh Didderiens and Anna Medvyedyeva. Drake secured the point shortly after with a win on court three, where Kristina Tai and Milana Dejanovic topped Ava Doddridge and Selena Bird, 6-4. 

South Dakota picked up two singles victories in the match. Didderiens earned a straight-set win at the No. 2 position, defeating Shiori Takeda 6-2, 6-3 to put the Coyotes on the board. 

Ketevan Shavishvili added the second point for South Dakota in a tightly contested match at No. 5 singles. After dropping the second set, Shavishvili rallied to claim the deciding set and secure a 6-2, 2-6, 7-5 victory over Elizabete Klavinska. 

Drake secured the remaining singles points to clinch the match. Jordane Dookie defeated Anna Medvyedyeva 6-1, 6-4 at No. 3, while Milana Dejanovic topped Natalia Alves de Lima 6-1, 6-4 on court six. Kristina Tai earned the Bulldogs another point at No. 4 with a straight-set win over Cassandra Marra. 

The final match of the afternoon came at the top of the lineup, where Dodik outlasted Bird in a marathon contest. Bird claimed the opening set in a tiebreak before Dodik battled back to take the second set and ultimately edged the deciding match tiebreak 10-8 to secure the 6-7 (8-10), 6-3, 1-0 (10-8) victory. 

Follow @SDCoyotesWTEN on X (Formerly Twitter) and Instagram for more content 

_________________________________________________________________________________  

Stay up to date with all things Coyotes by following South Dakota Athletics on Facebook /SDCoyotes, X (Twitter) @SDCoyotes, and Instagram @sdcoyotes! #GoYotes x #WeAreSouthDakota