After winning its first match of the year against Fresno State last Saturday in Athens, Ga., the Missouri women’s tennis team made it two victories in a row by defeating Arkansas-Fort Smith 7-0 Saturday at Green Tennis Center.

Not only was it the first home match of the year for the Tigers, it was also Sasha Shmid’s first home match as Missouri coach.

“It was great for us to be at home,” Schmid said. “I was able to get the feel of a home match at Missouri. It felt really good to get comfortable here.”

That feeling translated into an early start for the Tigers, one from which they never looked back.

In No. 1 singles, senior Nina Pantic handled Arkansas-Fort Smith’s Monica Pieratt (6-1 and 6-0).

In No. 2 singles, junior Maria Christensen notched a victory (6-2 and 6-0) over Arkansas-Fort Smith’s Abby Whittemore.

After playing No. 4 singles last weekend, sophomore Rachel Stuhlmann moved up to the third slot in Saturday’s match. She topped Arkansas-Fort Smith’s Masa Podunavac (6-0 and 6-1). Stuhlmann has now won seven of her first eight matches to start the season.

In No. 4 singles, freshman Alex Clark defeated Arkansas-Fort Smith’s Amy Belanger, 6-2 and 6-2.

In the No. 4 position, senior Jamie Mera prevailed over Arkansas Fort Smith’s Whitney Hobson, 6-0 and 6-1.

And finishing up the singles matches, in the No. 6 slot freshman Ashleigh Chiaf defeated Arkansas Fort Smith’s Kristen Cox, 6-0 and 6-0.

Chiaf said she felt the jitters in her first match as a Tiger.

“I was a bit nervous, but it felt really good to get out there on the court,” Chiaf said.

Not only did the Tigers sweep the singles matches, but they also won all three doubles matches as well.

In No.1 doubles, Missouri’s Pantic and Mera handled Arkansas Fort-Smith’s duo of Pieratt and Whittemore 8-0.

In the No. 2 doubles slot, Stuhlman and Chiaf beat Arkansas-Fort Smith’s pair of Hobson and Belagner 8-3.

Rounding out the sweep was Missouri’s duo of Christensen and Koenen, who trounced Arkansas-Fort Smith’s Cox and Podunavac by a sore of 8-0.

Schmid was quite proud of her team’s execution of their pre-match strategy.

“I thought the girls played really well,” Schmid said.” We were definitely trying to be aggressive. We felt today we wanted to be moving forward and applying pressure. It was important for us to keep our intensity and focus up. We did, so it was a success for us.”

Part of the Tigers’ recent success can be attributed to not getting discouraged after their first two losses, Mera said.

“We knew our first two matches were going to be really tough, but we had to stick with it,” she said. “We felt we played great, even in those two matches. Now we should get an opportunity to keep it going.”

The Tigers’ next chance to keep that success going will be Saturday at Wichita State.