EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – After having won five of its last six matches, the Northwestern College women's tennis team dropped an 8-1 nonconference contest to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles' lone win of the day came in the No. 1 doubles match.

Match Results

That doubles victory was credited to the pair of Megan Johnson (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) and Kelly Johnson (Annandale, Minn./Annandale), who started NWC's day off with an 8-5 win against the Blugolds' Taylor Heltne and Katie Gillman. The other two doubles matches went Eau Claire's way, both by an 8-2 score. Northwestern's Rachel Bostrom (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) and Rachel Smith (St. Cloud, Minn./Bemidji) lost to Gretchen Bachmeier and Maddie Johnson at No.2, while Amber Gallaway (Annandale, Minn./Annandale) and Aubree else fell to Mary Frassetto and Madison Rossebo in the No. 3 doubles match.

Eau Claire, who has lost just two of its 18 matches this season, continued its momentum from the second and third doubles contests into singles play, sweeping all six of those individual matches. Megan Johnson (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) won the most games of any Northwestern singles player in a 6-1, 6-4 loss to Heltne in the No. 1 contest. Kelly Johnson (Annandale, Minn./Annandale) settled for a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Bachmeier at No. 2 while Karin Smith (St. Cloud, Minn./Apollo) took two games off of Collen McCullough at 6 singles.

Northwestern, now 9-7 overall, will be back on the court on Monday as Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) foe Martin Luther College will meet the Eagles for a 3:30 p.m. match at Lifetime Fitness in Fridley, Minn. NWC and the Knights met last week with the Purple and Gold returning home from that match with a 9-0 sweep.