Results

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. – There are a lot of hopes and expectations for the St. Catherine University tennis team entering the 2018 season. The Wildcats were picked to finish fifth in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) preseason poll, meaning they are expected to make their eighth straight playoff appearance. On Saturday, St. Kate's opened the season in the best way possible with a dominant 9-0 win over Martin Luther College.

The Wildcats dominated in every facet of the match, as they dropped just 13 individual games total. St. Kate's opened the evening with a 3-0 sweep in doubles play, thanks to tremendous play by all three doubles teams. At the No. 1 spot, senior Julia Sporer (Rogers, Minn. / Rogers) and Alisha Wiedmeier (Rapid City, S.D. / Stevens) earned an 8-1 win over Martin Luther's Anna Hemmelman and Rachel Riediger. The No. 3 team of Maddy Knoll (Waseca, Minn. / Waseca) and Ruth Rike (Pine City, Minn. / Pine City) also beat their opponent 8-1, while No. 2 team of Bri Dorr (Princeton, Minn. / Princeton) and Ella Graham Madison, S.D. / Madison) defeated their opponents 8-0.

The dominant doubles play carried over to single play where three different Wildcats earned 6-0, 6-0 straight set sweeps. Sporer, Graham and Leah Obert (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley) all defeated their opponents in straight sets by scored of 6-0, 6-0, while Knoll beat Jessica Stibb 6-0, 6-1 as the team's No. 6 singles player.

Dorr and Wiedmeier played in the most dramatic matches of the evening. As St. Kate's No. 1 singles player, Dorr dispatched Hemmelman 6-2 in the opening set of singles play before the two players went toe-to-toe in the second set. Neither player was able to break the other until Dorr managed to do so with the score knotted at 5-5. The sophomore then served her way to a 7-5 victory to win the match in straight sets 6-2, 7-5.

Wiedmeier's singles match was also somewhat close, as she defeated Riediger in straight sets at the No. 2 singles sport. Wiedmeier won the opening set 6-0 and eventually broke Rieiger at 3-3 to win the second set 6-3.

Thanks to the win, the Wildcats open their season with an unblemished 1-0 record. St. Kate's will return to the courts on February 10 when it participated in the USTA Scimmages at Fred Wells Tennis Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.