UMAC Women's Tournament results (singles and doubles)

A perfect Friday and Saturday at the Baseline Tennis Club in St. Paul propelled the Saints to the postseason conference tournament title completing a 2008 UMAC slate that saw the women finish 8-0 within the league and stretch their all-time UMAC regular season record to 61-0.

All three doubles pairings played to semifinal and final wins Friday night to put the Saints in the lead heading into Saturday's singles action.

Throughout the regular season the Saints women rolled through their UMAC opponents in doubles with a perfect 24-0 record and Friday was no different. Both the No. 1 team of Paula Beckermann (Spicer, Minn./New London-Spicer HS) and Katie Motley (Eveleth, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert HS), and the 2-doubles pairing of Casey Ruberto (Thunder Bay, Ont./Hammarskjold HS) and Katrina Sacchetti (Virginia, Minn./Virginia Secondary) each won their semifinals by 8-0 scores. Beckermann/Motley captured their title with an 8-4 win in the final while Ruberto/Sacchetti picked up an even easier win with an 8-3 finals victory.

The No. 3 pairing of Megan Carlson (Pine City, Minn./Pine City HS) and Kelly Ross (Buffalo, Minn./Buffalo HS) rolled into the finals easily with an 8-1 semis win but were extended to a tie break in the final before winning 9-8 (7-5) to close out the evening.

Saturday's singles matches saw no mercy from the Saints as the six women -- five of the six seeded at No. 1 -- steamrolled through their semifinals in straight sets losing a combined eight games in 12 sets.

At 2-singles, second-seeded Katie Motley (Eveleth, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert HS) squared off in the final with Northwestern College's Wendy Miller who defeated Motley in both of their regular season match-ups. A different story would be written this time around, though, as Motley jumped ahead quickly witha 6-2 first set win then captured the title from the top-seeded Miller with a 7-6 (7-5) tie-break win in the second set.

Beckermann won quickly, 6-2 and 6-1, at 1-singles over Miller's doubles partner, and Angela Shields (Pengilly, Minn./Greenway HS) pushed her current winning streak to 12 in a row with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Amy Green from Northwestern in the 6-singles final.

Both Ruberto at 3-singles and Sacchetti at 4-singles were forced to third sets for their individual championships. Each won their opening sets in the final but dropped second sets before winning tie-breaks in the third.

Natalie Urick (Virginia, Minn./Virginia HS) won the sixth singles title for the Saints with a tense three-setter at No. 5. She fell behind early with a first set loss but won the next two sets for a conference title in her first season with the Saints.

The Saints, who finished 18-6 overall including wins over Wis.-Eau Claire and Division-II Bemidji State (twice) and Minn. State-Moorhead, must now play the waiting game as the NCAA determines the at-large bids to the 2008 NCAA Tournament.

Last season they were in the same boat after completing their first campaign at the NCAA D-III level following years of success in the NAIA. The good news call from the NCAA came late in the evening to head coach Wells Patten, a call he'll certainly be staying up for and hoping to receive on Monday night before the NCAA releases their official bids to media outlets on Tuesday morning, April 29th.