Box ScoreÂ
Having already clinched its postseason fate with a solid win Saturday, the St. Catherine University tennis team needed to finish the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) season strong against a College of Saint Benedict team that upset the Wildcats a year ago near the end of the season. The Wildcats weren't going to let that happen two years in a row, though, as they came out swinging against the Blazers to end the regular season with a huge 8-1 victory Sunday morning at the Lakeville Lifetime Fitness in Lakeville, Minnesota.Â
The Wildcats did what they do best taking a clean sweep of the doubles match ups to take a 3-0 lead into singles. At No. 1 singles,
Kylie Ketcho (Eden Prairie, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels) and
Mikinzee Salo (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) finished the year as the top MIAC pair going a perfect 10-0 thanks to their 8-4 win over Daley Rupar and Rachel Raden. This is the second time in three years that Salo has finished the MIAC regular season undefeated in doubles play – she went 10-0 at No. 3 doubles as a first-year player in 2013.Â
In the other doubles matchups,
Maria Koval (Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy) and
Angie Lorenzen (Mitchell, S.D./Mitchell) defeated Laura Finn and Victoria Beach 8-4 at the No. 2 singles spot, while
Alicia Knoll (Waseca, Minn./Waseca) and
Jessica Duda (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville) defeated Cassy Finn and Taylor Kraemer 8-6 at the No. 3 spot. Koval and Lorenzen went 7-2 together in MIAC doubles matches this season. Koval was 8-2 overall in conference doubles this year.Â
In singles, Knoll took the top victory with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Kraemer at No. 4 to finish the MIAC season 8-2 overall in singles. The Wildcats got 6-2, 6-1 wins at the top three spots from Koval, Salo and Ketcho. Koval downed Rupar at the No. 1 singles spot to finish the MIAC regular season 8-2. Salo defeated Laura Finn at No. 2 singles and finished the regular conference season 6-4, while Ketcho ended the year 8-2 against conerence opponents with a No. 3 win over Beach.Â
Lorenzen nabbed the final Wildcat victory of the day at the No. 5 singles position with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Megan Hintz. She ends the MIAC season 5-4 in singles play.Â
With the win, the Wildcats end the regular season 11-6 overall and 6-4 in the MIAC. They will make a return trip to the conference tournament for the fifth year in a row. Upon completion of regular season matches next week, the Wildcats will learn their seed and first opponent for matches slated to begin April 29 at 4:30 p.m. at the high-seed host location.
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