Results

DULUTH, Minn. – The St. Scholastica women's tennis team defeated rival Northwestern College 8-1 on Saturday afternoon at the Arrowhead Tennis Center for its 101st consecutive conference win and 16th straight Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season championship.

Today's dual was much closer than the 8-1 score would indicate as four matches were decided by tiebreakers with the Saints winning three of them.

CSS avenged a pair of doubles losses to the Eagles earlier this season, by sweeping all three today. The No. 1 team of Hillary Bungarden (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing HS) and Rachael Zwiener (St. Cloud, Minn./Home School) won 8-6. The No. 2 duo of Allie Carlson (Aitkin, Minn./Aitkin HS) and Alexis Gunderson (Virginia, Minn./Virginia HS) cruised to an 8-2 victory. Finally the No. 3 team of Megan Lawrence (Park Rapids, Minn./Park Rapids HS) and Kelli Johnson (Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS) won in a tiebreaker 9-8 (7-3).

In singles play, only Gunderson at No. 3 and Aleksandra Ochrymowicz (Winnipeg, Manitoba/St. Mary’s Academy) at No. 6 won in straight sets. Gunderson won 6-0, 6-2 and Ochrymowicz won 6-1, 6-2.

At No. 1 singles, Bungarden rallied from a set down to win 3-6, 6-3, (10-5). Zwiener at No. 2 hung on to win by scores of 6-1, 4-6, (10-4). Lawrence also had to hand on and win a very close match at No. 5 by scores of 6-2, 0-6, (12-10). Lawrence has now won 12 straight singles matches. The Eagles fall to 10-12 overall and 7-2 in the conference.

The Saints finished the regular season with a 16-6 overall record and will be in action next at the UMAC Championships next Friday and Saturday at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis. This season, the championships will be team-based with the top four teams in the UMAC standings advancing. The semifinals will be held Friday evening with the Saints either playing the University of Minnesota Morris, Martin Luther College or Bethany Lutheran College.