Results
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. – The St. Catherine University tennis team earned its first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) win of the season Saturday evening. After a battle against the University of St. Thomas last weekend, the Wildcats played their best conference match of the season, dominating Hamline University en route to an 8-1 victory.
St. Kate's earned three big points in doubles play thanks to wins by the top-3 doubles teams. As the No. 1 doubles team,
Bri Dorr (Princeton, Minn. / Princeton) and
Aubrey Eckstrom (St. James, Minn. / St. James) completly dominated in their 8-3 win over the Pipers top team of Ali Kopiecki and Ella Seehafer, while
Alisha Wiedmeier (Rapid City, S.D. / Stevens) and
Julia Sporer (Rogers, Minn. / Rogers) cruised to a 8-2 victory at the No. 2 doubles spot.
Ella Graham (Madison, S.D. / Madison) and
Leah Obert (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley) also earned a big point in their first doubles match together, as the first year-junior combo defeated Chloe McElmury and Claire Witt 8-2.
Things went just as smoothly in singles play, as the Wildcats won five of six individual matches to earn five points towards their overall team score. Sporer, Graham, Obert,
Maddy Knoll (Waseca, Minn. / Waseca) and
Ruth Rike (Pine City, Minn. / Pine City) all cruised to straight set victories, winning in dominant fashion. Graham and Rike each won by 6-2, 6-0 at the No. 3 and 6 singles spots respectively, while Obert didn't drop a game in her 6-0, 6-0 victory.
Sporer and Knoll both played in highly competitive individual matches but came out on top in the end. As the No. 2 singles player, Sporer defeated Seehafer 6-2 in the opening set before a highly contested second set. After the two players were deadlocked at 5-5, Sporer broke Seehafer to take a 6-5 lead and served to a 7-5 victory.
Knoll beat Megan Anderson 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 5 singles spot, clinching the eighth and final point for St. Kate's.
Dorr was the lone singles player to drop a match individually, but she certainly didn't go down without a fight. The sophomore battled in her match against Kopiecki, as she dropped the first set 6-4 before coming back to force the third set tiebreaker with a 6-3 victory. Sadly, Dorr was unable to come out on top in the tiebreaker, falling by a final score of 6-4, 3-6, 10-4.
With the win, the Wildcats overall record improves to 3-1 and they are now 1-1 in MIAC play. St. Kate's will return to the court on March 2 when it hosts Minnesota-Morris at 6:30 p.m. at Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
