Box Score Results
ST. JOSEPH, MINN. – There was one very simple scenario at hand for the St. Catherine University tennis team Friday evening. Win and the Wildcats qualify for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) postseason tournament for the eighth straight season. Well, St. Kate's certainly got the job done Friday night, as the team dominated in its conference match against the College of Saint Benedict, winning in dominant 9-0 fashion.
The Wildcats got off to a hot start in doubles play, as the swept all three matches to take an early 3-0 lead over the Blazers. St. Kate's No. 2 doubles team of
Bri Dorr (Princeton, Minn. / Princeton) and
Ella Graham (Madison, S.D. / Madison) cruised to an easy 8-1 victory, while
Alisha Wiedmeier (Rapid City, S.D. / Stevens) and
Julia Sporer (Rogers, Minn. / Rogers) gave the Wildcats a 2-0 advantage in the duel with an 8-4 win as the No. 1 doubles team.
St. Kate's No. 3 team of
Aubrey Eckstrom (St. James, Minn. / St. James) and
Maddy Knoll (Waseca, Minn. / Waseca) used a break late in the match to upend Saint Ben's Erin Kolbow and Lauren Clark. With the two teams knotted at 6-6, Eckstrom and Knoll broke the Blazers No. 3 team and served their way to victory, giving the Wildcats a 3-0 advantage after doubles play.
St. Kate's was just as dominant in singles play as it was in doubles, winning all six individual matches to take the duel 9-0.
Leah Obert (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Simley) was by far the most dominant, as she dropped just two games en route to a 6-2, 6-0 victory as the team's No. 4 singles player. Wiedmeier won her match as the Wildcats No. 1 singles player by scores of 6-2, 7-5, while Dorr cruised to a 6-1, 6-4 victory of her own in the No. 2 spot.
Sporer's success continued as the team's No. 3 singles player. The senior extended her individual win streak to two matches with her 6-3, 6-3 victory over Ellen Stensrud. First year Graham earned a hard fought 6-2, 6-4 win as St. Kate's No. 5 singles player, while sophomore Knoll took her match 6-2, 6-1.
Thanks to the win, the Wildcats qualify for the MIAC playoffs for the eighth consecutive year, one of the longest running tenures both at St. Kate's and in the conference on a whole. The Wildcats overall record also now stands at 11-5 and they are 4-5 in MIAC play.
St. Kate's will return to the court on Saturday, April 28, when it hosts No. 36 Gustavus Adolphus College in the final match of the regular season. The match is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. at St. Kate's outdoor tennis courts.
