SUPERIOR, Wis. - After the University of Northwestern Women's Tennis team's big UMAC victory against the St. Scholastica Saints on Saturday, April 24th, the Eagles were in the driver's seat as they controlled their own destiny to clinch the UMAC Regular Season Conference Championship. The Eagles had one mission in mind...beat UW Superior to earn the conference championship. However, the UW Superior Women's Tennis team fell to the Minnesota Morris Cougars the day following the Eagles 7-2 win over the Saints.
The UW Superior loss was significant because it placed both the Yellowjackets and Cougars at two losses on the season and with the head-to-head victory against the Saints, the Eagles were technically crowned UMAC Regular Season Conference Champions before their match with UW Superior even started. With the regular season conference championship secured for the Eagles, the mission didn't change heading into Wednesday's match. Not only did the Eagles want to be conference champions, but they wanted to earn a perfect regular season conference record.
To start off doubles play against the UW Superior Yellowjackets, the #3 doubles duo of Sabrina Bush (White Bear Lake, Minn./White Bear Lake) and Jessica Gross (Woodbury, Minn./New Life Academy) cruised to an early 8-0 victory. With a 1-0 lead, the Eagles other two doubles teams fought to earn the other two doubles points. In a back and forth match featuring Taylar Smith (Litchfield, Minn./Litchfield) and Elli Dodge (Wahpeton, N.D./Wahpeton) at #2 doubles, the Eagles were down an early break but were able to break back on the very next game and get another late break to secure the victory, 8-5.
Just across from Smith and Dodge in what seemed to be a controlled match from the #1 duo of Mafee Rinta (Hudson, Wis./Hudson) and Belinda Weddle (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander) quickly turned into an interesting match as Rinta and Weddle saw a 7-2 lead shrink to a 7-6 lead. Needing a service break to win the match and keep it from going into a tiebreaker, Rinta and Weddle prevailed and were able to escape with a narrow 8-6 victory. With that win, for the first time in school history the Eagles Women's tennis team went a perfect 18-0 in regular season conference doubles play.
Heading into singles play, the Eagles only needed two singles wins to cap off an undefeated conference regular season. Elli Dodge (Wahpeton, N.D./Wahpeton) (#5 singles) gave the Eagles a 4-0 lead, playing a great match in which she didn't drop a game. The Yellowjackets' #1 singles player Maya Callaway, a top contender for women's conference player of the year, was the first to get UW Superior on the board, winning her match against the Eagles' Rinta. With the score at 4-1, Bush (#6 singles) was the one to get it done and secure the team match for the Eagles, winning 6-2, 6-0.
Following the 5-1 victory, Smith was able to emerge victorious at #4 singles 6-1, 6-4 adding to the Eagles' lead. Weddle took a more unusual approach to winning her match, being down 1-4 in the first set and 2-5 in the second set. Despite the 3 game deficit in each set, Weddle remained cool, calm, and collected and was able to storm back, winning both sets at a score of 6-4, 7-6 (3). And looking to end the match with an 8-1 margin of victory, Gross (#3 singles) was able to complete the comeback after falling 2-6 in the first set, winning the second set 6-2 and forcing a third set super-tiebreaker in which she also overcame an early deficit of 2-4. On the tiebreaker change-over, she led 7-5 and rattled off another 3 points to close the super breaker.
With the 8-1 win against the Yellowjackets, the Eagles added an undefeated conference regular season to their already UMAC Regular Season Conference Championship. With this win, the 2021 Eagles join the hallowed ranks of the historic 2015 Eagles Tennis team as the only two UNW Women's Tennis teams to win the UMAC Regular Season Conference Championship outright. But the Eagles know all too well (to use a quote from Scottie Pippen) that, "'It' don't mean a thing without the ring." In this case, that "ring" is a UMAC Tournament Championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the Eagles look forward to their next match against Hamline (non-conference) and their semifinal matchup against the winner of the #4/#5 seed quarterfinals matchup of UW Superior and Bethany Lutheran on May 5th.
