WHITEWATER, Wis. --
Kelsey Dorr and
Sofia Walker of St. Catherine University tennis made history on Sunday at the ITA Midwest Regional clinching a program first Doubles title to advance to the ITA National Championship.
Dorr and Walker entered the regional tournament as the No. 2 seed winning their first match on Friday 8-7 (5) over unseeded Megan Dekan and Syd Presler from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
The double pair advanced to face the No. 15 seed Abby Stubel and Jay Mascardo from Luther by a score of 8-2 to advance again. On Saturday, Dorr and Walker faced conference rival, Lauren Douglas and Julia Barber from Bethel as the No. 5 seed by a score of 8-4.
In the semifinals match, the Wildcats competed against the No. 4 seed Cassandra Lee and Gracie Ha from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater by a decisive 8-4 to move on to the championship. The duo defeated Molly Austin and Allison Szalay from Gustavus Adolphus 7-6 (5), 6-1 for the program's first-ever ITA regional title and earn All-America honors.
They both also appeared in the singles draw at the regional championship with Dorr earning the top-seed resulting in a first-round bye. Walker was ranked 32nd also earning a first round bye before dropping a tight match in a tiebreaker to Alex Repplier from UW-Whitewater by a match score of 2-6, 6-3, 10-12.
Dorr's claimed her first match 6-2, 6-1 over Alliandra Hagness from Coe to advance to the round of 32. From there, Dorr moved onto the round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-0 defeat of Utsah Kalra from Grinnell. In the top-eight Dorr took the victory over Gracie Ha from UW-Whitewater 7-6 (5), 6-3 to appear in the quarterfinal round. Her impressive run finished on Sunday morning falling to Irene Agusti from Grinnell with a score of 6-7 (6), 4-6 while Agusti went onto to win the singles title.
Dorr and Walker punched their ticket to the ITA Cup in Rome, Georgia, October 12-26.