Results

A week ago to the day, the St. Catherine University tennis team suffered a disappointing 8-1 non-conference loss to Gustavus Adolphus College at the Midwest Invitational. This week, the Wildcats dropped to No.13 in the Central Region poll and faced the prospect of facing the No. 11 regionally-ranked Gusties again. But this time, the Wildcats found the revenge they were looking for as they came up with a crucial Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) 7-2 victory over the Gusties Sunday afternoon at the University of Minnesota Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis. 

The Wildcats opened up the match with a big 3-0 lead after battling for huge wins at all three doubles positions. At the No. 1 spot, Victoria Bravo (Tucson, Ariz.) returned to the lineup with Mikinzee Salo (Brainerd, Minn.) to take down the top Gustie team of Michaela Schulz and Laurel Kresbach 8-6. The Wildcats also had their work cut out at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots as both teams took down their Gustie opponents by the score of 9-7. At the second position, Maria Koval (Green Bay, Wis) and Kylie Ketcho (Edina, Minn.) defeated Sidney Dirks and Annie Mahoney, while Alicia Knoll (Waseca, Minn.) and Megan Buysse (Redwood Falls, Minn.) picked up their third MIAC win of the season at the third spot. 

In singles play, Bravo remained undefeated in her MIAC singles career at the No. 1 with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Schulz to put the Wildcats up 4-0. With the win, Bravo improves to 7-0 in the MIAC this season and 17-0 in MIAC career – all of her wins have come in straight-set decisions. 

The decissive match of the day came, though, at the No. 6 spot as Buysse battled back for a win after dropping the first set 6-2 at the No. 6 spot to Annie Mahoney. Buysse came back strong with a 6-2 victory in the second set before ending the match with a 10-3 win in the third set tie breaker. 

Koval also had an impressive win – also her seventh MIAC singles victory of the season – at the No. 2 spot over Kresbach. After taking down her Gustie opponent 6-0 in the first set, Koval dropped the second 2-6 and then battled to a 10-7 win in the third-set tiebreaker. 

Knoll also battled to a third-set decision at the No. 5 spot against Aryn Eckstrom for her fifth MIAC singles win of the season. The first-year took the first 6-2, before falling 6-3 in the second. Knoll then picked up the win by a score of 10-5 in the final set. 

With the win, the Wildcats improve to 7-1 in the MIAC with only two matches against the College of Saint Benedict and the University of St. Thomas left on the conference portion of the schedule and have safely clinched a place in the MIAC playoffs. Next up, the Wildcats are slated to take on UW-River Falls Wednesday at 4 p.m. at St. Kate's.

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