Results
CHICAGO, ILL. – The windy city has treated the St. Catherine University tennis team well this spring break. While snow fell in the Twin Cities, the Wildcats were busy winning their second-straight match, this time by a score of 6-3 over Illinois' Elmhurst College Monday morning.
St. Kate's got out to a strong start, as it won two of three doubles matches to take a 2-1 lead over the Bluejays. The Wildcats No. 1 team of
Bri Dorr (Princeton, Minn. / Princeton) and
Ella Graham (Madison, S.D. / Madison) earned a huge point for St. Kate's thanks to an 8-5 win over Rachel Rettger and Kathryn Wheeler.
Julia Sporer (Rogers, Minn. / Rogers) and
Leah Obert (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley) followed that up with an 8-3 win as the No. 3 doubles team to give the Wildcats a 2-0 advantage.
St. Kate's No. 2 team of
Maddy Knoll (Waseca, Minn. / Waseca) and
Aubrey Eckstrom (St. James, Minn. / St. James) lost a hard fought match in one of the most intense matches of the afternoon. After staying on serve through the match, the Wildcats and Bluejays were knotted at 7-7 in the latter stages. Unfortunately, it was Elmhurst that managed to break Knoll and Eckstrom first to take an 8-7 lead before holding serve to win the match 9-7.
Knoll and Eckstrom both rebounded with victories in singles play, helping clinch the dual match victory for St. Kate's. As the No. 5 singles player, Knoll defeated her Bluejay opponents in straight sets 6-1, 6-1, while Eckstrom won as the No. 6 player without dropping a set, beating Elmhurst's Bridget Lopez 6-0, 6-0.
Sporer and sophomore
Alisha Wiedmeier (Rapid City, S.D. / Stevens) also nabbed two wins in singles play, as they too defeated their respective opponents in straight sets. Sporer beat Rettger 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 3 spot, while Wiedmeier cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win as the No. 2 singles player.
Dorr and Graham suffered the Wildcats lone singles losses of the day, but both fought valiantly in their respective matches. After dropping the first set 7-5, Dorr rebounded for a big 6-2 second set victory over Chiara Gaudio to force the third set tiebreaker. Unfortunately, St. Kate's No. 1 singles player was unable to hold her lead in the tiebreaker, falling 7-5, 2-6, 10-6.
Graham battled in her match as the team's No. 4 singles player, but lost to Wheeler 6-3, 6-2.
With the win, the Wildcats overall record improves to 7-3 and they hold a 1-3 mark in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play. St. Kate's will take Tuesday off before returning to competition on Wednesday. The team will play North Central College at 3 p.m. in Chicago, Illinois.
