Mary Beth Gunn

The 2021-22 season marks the seventh for Mary Beth Gunn as the head coach of the Southeast Missouri women's tennis team. Gunn led the Redhawks to their first-ever Ohio Valley Conference Championship in 2021 with a program-best perfect 7-0 mark in league play for the top seed at the OVC Tournament in Evansville, Indiana. The tournament appearance was Gunn’s second straight and third in six seasons at SEMO. SEMO concluded the 2021 season with an overall record of 15-5 and finished as the OVC tournament runners-up. The Redhawks 15 wins in 2021 are their highest win total in 28 years as the 1993 SEMO team finished the season with a mark of 17-6 (6-1 OVC). Gunn was awarded 2021 OVC Coach of the Year as SEMO swept the 2021 OVC women's tennis awards. Romana Tarajova and Daniela Hlacikova combined to earn Player of the Year and Co-Freshman of the Year, respectively. Tarajova is the first-ever OVC Player of the Year in SEMO program history while Hlacikova is the fourth OVC Freshman of the Year at SEMO and third in Gunn’s six seasons at the helm. Tarajova and Hlacikova were also both tabbed to the 2021 All-OVC First Team while Ksenia Shikanova was selected to the 2021 All-OVC Second Team. The three All-OVC selections are a program-best for SEMO. Gunn also coached the doubles team of Kseniya Zonova and Teona Velkoska who ranked as high as 71st in the 2021 Oracle Intercollegiate Tennis Association Division I Women's Rankings after a season-opening victory over Missouri's top doubles team and #29-ranked Bronte Murgett and Marta Oliveira (9-5 in 2021). SEMO won the doubles point in every conference dual this season and jumped out to a 1-0 start in 15 of its 20 matches in 2021. The Redhawks went 14-3 in doubles matches against OVC opponents. Romana Tarajova teamed up with Kseniya Zonova for a team-best 11-3 doubles mark at the top slot including a 6-0 record during conference play. The doubles teams of Ksenia Shikanova and Lera Valeeva, and Daniela Hlacikova and Teona Velkoska both finished 2021 with 8-3 marks. Valeeva and Shikanova went 8-2 at no. 2 doubles including 4-1 in the OVC. Hlacikova and Velkoska posted a 7-3 record at the final slot and were 4-2 in league matches. In singles, SEMO posted a 32-10 mark against conference foes in 2021. Vivian Lai was perfect at the fifth singles slot, going 7-0, and did not drop a match against any OVC opponents this season including at the 2021 Tournament (2-0). Lai's 16 singles wins tied for fifth all-time in SEMO program history for single-season wins and her 16-3 mark ranks tied for third for best single-season record. She was named OVC Women's Tennis Player of the Week on April 21 and Tarajova was tabbed the OVC Women's Tennis Player of the Week on March 17. Daniela Hlacikova, the 2021 OVC Freshman of the Year, was second on the Redhawks in 2021, with a singles mark of 14-3 and an OVC record of 6-1 (no. 2 singles). Ksenia Shikanova notched a 12-5 mark for third on the team including 6-1 in the OVC at the fourth slot. Romana Tarajova, the 2021 OVC Player of the Year, was fourth on SEMO with an 11-6 singles record (5-2 OVC at no. 1 singles). The Redhawks went on an 11-match win streak from March 8 to April 24 to conclude their non-conference slate and captured the 2021 OVC Championship with seven-straight wins during league competition. Academically, the Redhawks were awarded their seventh consecutive Intercollegiate Tennis Association All-Academic Team award with eight student-athletes named ITA Scholar-Athletes in 2021. SEMO accumulated a 3.66 cumulative grade point average in 2020-21 and boasted SEMO Department of Athletics' highest GPA in the spring with a 3.82. Five SEMO tennis players finished 2020-21 with 4.0 GPAs and two Redhawks earned the perfect grade point average during the fall 2020 semester. Maja Lundell was the recipient of the Trombetta Award, which is given to a graduating SEMO female student-athlete with the highest GPA. Lundell registered a perfect 4.0 GPA in her career as a Redhawk and graduated in May with a Bachelor of Science in Biology: Microbiology, Cellular, Molecular Biology and Biotechnology with a minor in Chemistry. She was also selected as a recipient of the 2020-21 President's Spirit of Southeast Award. She is the third consecutive Redhawks tennis player to receive the President's Spirit of Southeast Award after Kseniya Zonova earned the honor in 2019-20 and Anais Emelie was honored with the award in 2018-19. Gunn coached the Redhawks to a 4-6 mark before the 2020 dual season was shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Freshman Vivian Lai earned OVC Women’s Tennis Athlete of the Week on March 11 and led SEMO with a 5-2 dual singles record in 2020. During the fall tournament season, SEMO captured a pair of doubles championships with Teona Velkoska and Lai winning the Austin Peay Fall Invitational (9/13-14) and Romana Tarajova and Manuela Barriga teaming up at the Central Arkansas (UCA) Fall Invitational (9/28-29). Lai also won a singles championship at the UCA Fall Invitational. At the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Ohio Valley Regional Championship (10/17-19), Tarajova and Kseniya Zonova each tallied singles wins over Power Five schools. Tarajova bested Nikol Dobrilova of the Big Ten's Purdue and Zonova overcame Kylie Duckworth of the SEC’s Tennessee. In the classroom, the team was recognized as an ITA All-Academic Team as all nine Redhawk student-athletes earned ITA Scholar-Athlete awards. SEMO accumulated a 3.88 cumulative grade point average during the 2020 school year. The Redhawks also captured an NCAA Public Recognition Award after posting an Academic Progress Rate score in the top 10 percent of the sport. Maja Lundell, Grace Powderly, Manuela Barriga and Kseniya Zonova each were awarded OVC Academic Medals of Honor after notching perfect 4.0 GPAs for the 2019-20 academic year. Seven total Redhawks tennis players were listed on the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll. Zonova and Powderly were both selected as recipients of 2019-2020 Southeast Student Life & Leadership Awards. Zonova earned the President's Spirit of Southeast Award and Powderly garnered the Civic & Global Engagement Award. During the 2020 season, Gunn led the Redhawks to their first OVC Championship win in 16 years. As the fifth seed, Southeast overcame #4 Belmont, 4-1, in the first round to finish as semifinalists at the 2019 conference tournament. Gunn also coached her second OVC Freshman of the Year at SEMO in Romana Tarajova. Tarajova became the third SEMO player to win the award and second in three years as Oleksandra Doroshenko garnered the award in 2017. Tarajova was also named to the First-Team All-OVC after she fashioned a 13-5 mark at the top singles position. The team posted a 3.87 GPA during the 2018-19 school year to be recognized as an ITA All-Academic Team. Each player was selected to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll and earned the distinction of ITA Scholar-Athlete. Six members of the 2018-19 squad earned the OVC Academic Medal of Honor for registering a perfect 4.0 grade point average during the academic year. The team also garnered an OVC Team Academic Achievement Award as the tennis program with the greatest percentage of its eligible student-athletes who achieved a 3.25 grade point average or higher. Gunn coached two All-OVC players in 2018. Oleksandra Doroshenko was named to the First-Team All-OVC and Kseniya Zonova garnered Second-Team All-OVC honors. The duo was the first pair of Redhawk players to be named to All-OVC Teams since Nikole Novikova and Elizabeth Nyenwe both claimed First-Team All-OVC laurels in 2011. Gunn led SEMO to a remarkable turnaround in her second season. After going 1-19 overall and winless in the Ohio Valley Conference the year before, the Redhawks went 13-8 and finished fifth in the OVC with a 5-4 mark in 2016-17. SEMO advanced to its first OVC Tournament in 10 years as its fifth-place conference finish was the Redhawks best in 20 seasons. SEMO ended a string of 10-consecutive losing seasons with its winning campaign in 2016-17, the program's first since 2005-06 (12-11). The Redhawks also celebrated their first OVC winning record since 1996-97 (6-4). Gunn coached OVC Freshman of the Year Oleksandra Doroshenko. Doroshenko was also a Second-Team All-OVC performer after she led the Redhawks with 16 singles victories and 14 wins in doubles play. Doroshenko ended her 2017 spring by tying the fifth-most singles victories and fourth-most doubles wins in a season at SEMO. She was named OVC Female Athlete of the Week twice and became the first SEMO player to beat an SEC opponent during her stellar rookie campaign. SEMO's spring success followed a tremendous fall season. The Redhawks finished their 2016 fall campaign with a 56-47 (.544) singles record and 36-25 (.590) mark in doubles play. SEMO accumulated its most wins and best winning percentage in any fall season of competition. Gunn was hired as SEMO's ninth head women's tennis coach on November 10, 2015. Prior to joining the Redhawks, Gunn coached at Western Illinois, Limestone College and fellow OVC member UT Martin. She was the head women's tennis coach at WIU and served as an assistant coach at both Limestone College (2014-15) and UT Martin (2009-13). Gunn was on coaching staffs for two conference championship teams. She helped lead UTM to the OVC Women's Tennis Championship in 2010-11 and Limestone College to a Conference Carolinas women's tennis title in 2014-15. Gunn was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Assistant Coach of the Year in 2015. Gunn earned both her bachelor's degree in English and History (2008) and master's degree in Education (2011) from UTM. She was a standout tennis player at UT Martin, earning All-OVC honors with the Skyhawks in 2007.