ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Northwestern St. Paul Women's Tennis team hosted their UMAC Tournament Semifinal match against UW-Superior on Thursday evening. The Eagles soared to an 8-1 victory over the Yellowjackets to advance to the UMAC Championship match.

UNW jumped out to a 3-0 lead by sweeping the doubles competition. The team of Jessica Gross (Woodbury, Minn./New Life Academy) and Sabrina Bush (White Bear Lake, Minn./White Bear Lake) earned the first Eagle team point with an 8-1 win at #3 doubles. Taylar Smith (Litchfield, Minn./Litchfield) and Elli Dodge (Wahpeton, N.D./Wahpeton) followed by winning their #2 doubles contest 8-2. Northwestern completed the sweep at the #1 match as the duo of Mafee Rinta (Hudson, Wis./Hudson) and Belinda Weddle (Rhinelander, Wis./Rhinelander) took their match 8-3.

Heading into singles with a 3-0 lead, the Eagles swiftly closed the door on the match with a pair of 6-0, 6-0 sweeps. Dodge swept her #5 singles match, and Bush followed with a sweep of her own in the #6 match to earn the fifth team point for Northwestern to seal the victory and send UNW to the UMAC Championship.

Three of the four remaining matches ended in super tiebreakers. Gross closed out her match 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-3) to earn a sixth point for Northwestern. The Yellowjackets got on the board with a 6-1, 0-6, 1-0 (10-3) win at the #2 singles match to avoid the team sweep, but UNW nonetheless closed out the match with a pair of singles victories by Rinta and Smith. Rinta won her #1 match 6-0, 3-6, 1-0 (10-3), and Smith took her #4 match 6-1, 6-1 to complete the 8-1 semifinals victory for the Eagles.

Up next for Northwestern is the UMAC Tournament Championship match. The Eagle will host St. Scholastica at the Johnson Tennis Courts in a battle for the title on Saturday, May 8, at 1pm.