ST. LOUIS – Lewis University's 71st ranked women's tennis team defeated Missouri-St. Louis 4-1 on Friday evening at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center to advance to the semifinal round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. The Flyers improve to 15-6 while the Tritons finish their season with a record of 9-8.

UMSL, seeded third in the West Division, won two of the three doubles matches to take the opening point of the match. Lewis' only win in doubles came at the number three spot with Jovana Vujanic (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Elk Grove) and Grace Sueflohn (Delafield, Wis./KM Global Charter School) defeating Clara Lopez Bueno and Maja Lietzau 6-2.

The Flyers, seeded second in the East Division, rallied in the singles portion of the match winning four of the six matches to clinch the victory. Nefeli Zafeiri (Greece) got Lewis on the board defeating Anna Domingo 6-1, 7-5 in the No. 2 singles match. Casey Smith (Portage, Mich./Portage Central) followed with a 6-3, 6-4 win in the third singles competition to give Lewis a 2-1 lead. Sage Hills (Bloomingdale, Ill./Glenbard North) was leading her match over Lopez Bueno 6-2, 5-1 when Lopez Bueno retired due to injury. Vujanic clinched the win for the Flyers as she defeated Leticia Lunge 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the No. 4 singles competition.

Before the match on Friday, Anastasiya Salenko (Kyiv, Ukraine) was named to the All-GLVC team.

Smith was recognized as Lewis' honoree for the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award. This honor is bestowed upon student-athletes who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. These individuals must also be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. The honorees are now eligible to become one of their school's two Spalding Sportsmanship Award winners, which will be announced in May.

Lewis will take on Southwest Baptist, seeded first in the West Division, on Saturday afternoon at 12 p.m. at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in St. Louis.