Box Score The St. Catherine University tennis team was beginning to hit a stretch of matches where it would face some of the top competition in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) and would have to be at its best to come up with wins. After falling to St. Olaf College a week ago, the Wildcats' faced the reigning conference champion No. 26 Carleton College for a home court match. Despite taking the doubles 2-1 in thrilling fashion and fighting to three third-set tiebreakers with a chance at match point, the Wildcats fell to the nationally-ranked Knights in a 5-4 marathon match Saturday evening at the University of Minnesota Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis.
The Wildcats started off the match with two solid wins at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. At the second spot,
Maria Koval (Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy) and
Angie Lorenzen (Mitchell, S.D./Mitchell) scored the first win of the night for the Wildcats when they defeated Mikayla Becich and Grace Davis 8-4 for their fourth MIAC doubles win of the season.
Then, regionally-ranked pair
Kylie Ketcho (Eden Prairie, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels) and
Mikinzee Salo (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) scored a come-from-behind 9-7 win against Joyce Yu and Caitlin Shea. Ketcho and Salo were down 7-6 and faced a loss when they rallied to win three-straight games remaining undefeated in MIAC play and lifting tthe Wildcats to a 2-1 advantage heading into singles.
Coming off a strong doubles win, No. 1 singles star Koval scored a solid 6-4, 6-2 win over Danielle Vasilev to extend the Wildcat lead to 3-1. Koval is now 3-1 at the top spot in MIAC matches so far this season.
Alicia Knoll (Waseca, Minn./Waseca) scored the Wildcats' fourth and final win of the night when she took down Alana Danieu at the No.4 position. After dropping the first set 6-0, the sophmore came back with a convincing 6-1 win in the second set before battling Danieu for an 11-9 victory in decidisive third set.
The Wildcats had chances to upset the Knights at both No. 3 and No. 5 singles. At the third spot, Ketcho lost the first set to 5-7 to Claire Spencer, but managed to come back strong with a 6-2 win in the second. Spencer then won the tiebreaker 11-9.
At the No. 5 spot, Lorenzen and Shea exchanged 6-4 wins in the first two sets to force another tiebreaker situation. Shea eventually edged out Lorezen 10-7 to help the Knights remain undefeated in MIAC play.
With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 4-2 overall and 2-2 in the MIAC. The Wildcats will have a quick turnaround as they are scheduled to face Hamline University Sunday at 8 a.m. at Baseline.
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