FARGO, N.D. – The regionally-ranked St. Olaf College women's tennis team eased to a 9-0 win over Concordia-Moorhead in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Saturday afternoon at Courts Plus.
St. Olaf (7-4, 5-3 MIAC) bounced back from back-to-back losses to regionally-ranked teams by blanking Concordia (7-12, 1-9 MIAC) for its 22nd consecutive victory in the series between the two teams. Five student-athletes were victorious in both singles and doubles for the Oles, who were ranked No. 20 in this week's Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Regional Rankings and were ranked in the initial set of NCAA Regional Rankings.
In doubles, St. Olaf got an 8-4 victory from first year
Olha Zubarieva and sophomore
Anna Secor at the top spot, an 8-5 win from first years
Sarah Clark and
Jane Spading at the second spot, and an 8-6 victory from seniors
Teresa Fawcett and
Katherine Ichinose at the third spot. Clark and Spading improved to 6-1 in MIAC play with their win, while Fawcett and Ichinose made it two wins out of two matches as a pairing this season.
The Oles did not drop a set in the six singles matches to close out the 9-0 win. Zubarieva picked up her fifth win in the last seven matches with a 6-0, 6-2 victory at No. 1 singles, while Clark and first year
Fiona O'Flaherty dropped just three games in their wins at No. 2 and No. 3 singles, respectively. O'Flaherty's victory was her team-best fifth conference win of the season and she is now 5-1 in the last six matches.
Fawcett won a lengthy second-set tiebreaker to close out a 6-0, 7-6 (10-8) triumph at No. 4 singles, while Spading finished off her opponent at No. 5 singles by a 6-3, 7-5 margin. Secor added a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 6 singles as well.
St. Olaf is scheduled to play its final two matches of the regular season at home, beginning with a match against Macalester on Wednesday, April 27 at 4 p.m. at Carlson Courts.