BOLIVAR, Mo. – The No. 27-ranked Midwestern State Mustangs handed the No. 35 Southwest Baptist Bearcats their first loss of the season, snapping SBU's 14-match winning streak with a 6-3 win at the SBU Tennis Courts on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Mustangs won their seventh straight to go to 13-5 overall, while the Bearcats fell to 14-1 this season.
 
"This was a total team effort," said MSU coach Scott Linn.  "We competed well today and were rewarded with a good win."
 
Linn commended the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles teams for MSU for turning their matches around to take the early 2-1 lead over the Bearcats.
 
Kayla Casey and Madeline Schorlemmer won the extended No. 2 point 9-7 over Adrienn Kovacs and Faiga Schmidt, while Taylor Coffman and Fatima Clementino won at No. 3 over Mehak Singh and Andejela Panovski 8-6.
 
SBU scored at No. 1 as Fanni Varga and Christina Zentai downed Sarita Adhikary and Lauren Pineda 8-2.
 
Casey got the first point in singles at No. 3 when Zentai was forced to withdraw.  Casey won the first set 6-2, but Zentai led 2-0 in the second when an injury forced the stoppage.
 
The key match was at No. 4 where freshman Schorlemmer beat SBU's Kovacs 4-6, 6-0, 7-6 (8-6).
 
"Madeline trailed 5-2 in the last set and battled back to win in the tiebreak," said Linn.  "She really showed her competitive spirit."
 
Pineda came through with a 7-5, 6-1 win over Schmidt at No. 5, as Clementino beat Panovski 6-1, 6-2 at No. 6.
 
SBU scored in the top two singles points, with No. 39 Varga beat Adhikary 6-1, 6-3 in the No. 1 spot, and Singh won at No. 2 over Coffman 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
 
"We wanted to compete and stepped up," Linn added.  "We still haven't played our best tennis yet, but we keep getting better and need to."
 
MSU returns to the court next Saturday in a pivotal Lone Star Conference match against Tarleton State.  First serve is 10:30 a.m. at the MSU Tennis Center.