MINNEAPOLIS – Already the outright Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) regular season champion, the University of Northwestern women's tennis team won the league's postseason tournament on Saturday with a 6-3 victory over the College of St. Scholastica. 2015 was the second year in a row that the Eagles defeated the Saints at Baseline Tennis Center on the University of Minnesota campus to claim the UMAC Tournament title.
Match ResultsNorthwestern led 2-1 after doubles play. UNW's No. 1 pair of
Megan Johnson (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) and
Karen Moe (Fargo, N.D./Fargo South ) had a bit of a rough start, but recovered to defeat St. Scholastica's Madeleine Scanlan and Daniela Rojas 8-5.
Birdie Bardwell (Stewartville, Minn./Stewartville) and
Tina Matetich (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing) were also winners for Northwestern at No. 3 doubles as they too won their match 8-5.
Moe earned UNW's third point on her 6-0, 6-1 defeat of Scanlan at No. 2 singles, extending her program-record single season singles victories mark to 26 along the way. Bardwell followed with an exciting comeback finish at No. 4 singles as the freshman defeated Katie Kingston 3-6, 6-0, 1-0 (12-10). CSS picked up a point at No. 6 singles to make it 4-2 before
Rachel Bostrom (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) sealed the deal with her 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) victory over Rojas to earn a second straight UMAC Tournament trophy for Northwestern.
Megan Johnson (Hibbing, Minn./Hibbing)'s win at No. 1 singles, a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Alexis Gunderson, paired with her No. 1 doubles victory with Moe, improved her career win total to 138, a mark that has already blown Northwestern and UMAC records away. Johnson and Moe share the UNW record for doubles victories in a season at 23.
With little time to spare, Northwestern will now hop on a plane and head south to Mobile, Alabama for next week's National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Tournament, where the Eagles will be guaranteed at least three pool play matches. The top two teams from each four-squad pool will advance to Thursday's semifinal round. UNW will face both Shorter University and McMurry University on Tuesday, May 5 at 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Both matches are played in eastern daylight time.
