ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Northwestern team battled the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, as well as some bitterly-cold winds, on Saturday morning in its 2025 home debut. The match was tight throughout and came down to the final singles match, which resulted in a third-set tiebreak loss to give the Falcons a 4-3 win over the Eagles.
Northwestern came out red-hot in doubles play.
Paige Johnson (Zimmerman, Minn./Homeschool) and
Elise Jarchow (Luverne, Minn./Luverne) kicked things off with a 6-1 win in the No. 2 match before the No. 3 team of
Isabelle Sullivan (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) and
Caitlyn Swigart (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) clinched the doubles point with a 6-3 win. Just for good measure,
Abby Johnson (Zimmerman, Minn./Homeschool) and
Aby Ross (Chico, Calif./Central) won their No. 1 doubles match, 7-5, to complete the doubles sweep and go up 1-0.
Jarchow kept the momentum going into singles matches, notching a dominant 6-0, 6-1 win in the No. 3 match. That is when UWRF found its footing. Ross fell 3-6, 2-6 at No. 4 singles, then
Paige Johnson (Zimmerman, Minn./Homeschool) and
Isabelle Sullivan (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) suffered 4-6, 4-6 defeats at No. 2 and No. 5, respectively. Suddenly trailing 3-2 as a team,
Abby Johnson (Zimmerman, Minn./Homeschool) dug deep and pulled out a 6-2, 7-5 win in the No. 1 slot to tie things up with one match ongoing. It all came down to
Caitlyn Swigart's (Cottage Grove, Minn./Park) No. 6 singles match. The senior lost a tight first set, 6-7, but bounced back to win the second, 7-5. As was the case throughout the entire match, the third-set tiebreak was close and tense. Swigart came back to tie it at 8-8, but ended up falling just short at 8-10, giving River Falls a 4-3 win.
The UNW women will make the short trip down to St. Catherine University on Tuesday at 4:00 PM.
