DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica women's tennis team swept Bethany Lutheran College in the morning and then earned a heart-stopping victory over conference leader University of Northwestern in the afternoon on Saturday at the Arrowhead Tennis Center.

CSS 9, Bethany Lutheran 0
The Saints began the day with a convincing 9-0 victory over Bethany Lutheran.

In doubles play, Alexa Herbst (Foley, Minn. /Foley HS) and Allie Carlson (Aitkin, Minn./Aitkin HS) started off by winning 8-0 in the No. 2 spot. Miki Samz (Savage, Minn. /Burnsville HS) and Olivia Bretting (Ashland, Wis. /Ashland HS (St. Thomas)) at No. 3 and Jessica Solberg (Bemidji, Minn. /Bemidji HS) and Alexis Gunderson (Virginia, Minn./Virginia HS) in the No. 1 spot both won 8-2.

In singles, Madeleine Scanlan (St. Albans, England /Loreto College) won 6-0, 6-0 in the No. 1 spot. Kelsey Geiger (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park HS) then added another win in the No. 4 spot with a score of 6-1, 6-1.

In the No. 5 spot Pamela Hartley (Lima, Peru/Franklin Roosevelt College) won 6-3, 6-1. Aleksandra Ochrymowicz (Winnipeg, Manitoba/St. Mary’s Academy) won in the No. 3 spot 6-1, 6-0. Halle Nystrom (Fargo, N.D. /Fargo North HS) won 6-1, 6-2 in the No. 6 spot and Gunderson won in the No. 2 spot 6-0, 6-1.

CSS 6, Northwestern 3
In the afternoon, the Saints were looking to exact revenge on the Eagles, who handed CSS its first-ever conference dual match loss at the end of March. Saturday's match was the UMAC Game of the Week.

The Saints, who dropped two of the three doubles matches in the previous meeting, came out strong today. The No. 3 team of Katie Kingston (Virginia, Minn./Virginia HS) and Carlson won 8-2. In the No. 2 spot Scanlan and Herbst won 8-4. Finishing up the doubles was Gunderson and Solberg who won 8-5 in the No. 1 spot.

In singles action, Kingston played in the No.5 spot and won with a score of 6-3, 6-1 to put the Saints up 4-0. Northwestern picked up the next three matches in the No. 6, No. 1, No. 2 flights.

With the dual still in doubt, the final two matches came down to super-breakers. At No. 3 Solberg took the first set 6-4, but dropped the second set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-5). The 10-point third-set super-breaker needed some overtime with Solberg ultimately clinching the dual match win for the Saints with a 12-10 victory. 

Finally in the No. 4 spot Ochrymowicz also took the first set 6-3, but dropped the second set 6-4. It would be another two-point super-breaker win for the Saints as Ochrymowicz took it 10-8 to give CSS a 6-3 victory.

The Saints are now tied with the Eagles for first place in the conference. Both teams beat each other 6-3.

CSS (15-6, 8-1 UMAC) plays its regular season finale tomorrow at Quad Cities Tennis in Virginia against the University of Minnesota Morris. Match time is scheduled for noon.