ST. PAUL, Minn. – The St. Olaf College women's tennis team secured its first home playoff match since 2016 with an 8-1 victory over Macalester College in its regular-season finale on Saturday at Hayden Courts.

Needing a win and one loss by the College of St. Scholastica in its final two matches to earn a home playoff match, St. Olaf (12-3, 7-3 MIAC) took care of business against Macalester (3-14, 1-8 MIAC), while the Saints lost to Carleton College. Senior Olha Zubarieva, senior Fiona O'Flaherty, junior Alexandra Berns, and senior Sarah Clark all were victorious in both singles and doubles for the Oles.

With the win and other results around the conference, St. Olaf will be the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 seed St. Catherine University in the quarterfinals of the MIAC Playoffs at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30. The match will be the fourth home playoff match for the Oles in MIAC Playoffs under the team tournament format since 2007.

St. Olaf won all three of the doubles matches, including a see-saw victory from Zubarieva and senior Jane Spading at No. 1 doubles. Zubarieva and Spading won the first six games before Macalester took the next six, but the Ole pairing recovered to win the final two games for an 8-6 victory.

O'Flaherty and Berns completed an 8-2 season in MIAC play with an 8-0 win at No. 2 doubles, while Clark and junior Emma Clift leveled their mark at 4-4 with an 8-3 victory at No. 3 doubles. Clark and Clift were down 3-0 before winning the final eight games.

In singles, St. Olaf lost just three games in eight sets at the No. 3, No. 4, No. 5, and No. 6 singles spots to quickly secure the team result. O'Flaherty improved to a team-best 8-2 in conference play with a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 3 singles, while Berns did not lose a game at No. 4 singles to move to 7-3 in the conference.

Clark eased to a 6-1, 6-1 victory at No. 5 singles for her 12th singles win of the season, while sophomore Charlotte Sloane claimed her second MIAC victory of the season by a 6-1, 6-0 margin. In the longest match of the day, Zubarieva outlasted Savannah Haugen by a 7-6 (7-4), 7-5 margin at No. 1 singles after rallying from 4-0 down in the first set to win the tiebreaker. Zubarieva also trailed 5-3 in the second set before winning the final four games.