The St. Kate's tennis team competed extremely well against some of the top ranked players in the region at the weekend long ITA tournament. Everyone that went down to participate had some very quality, hard fought matches, and almost every member of the team came away with some big wins to hold onto moving forward. "I was very proud of how the whole team never gave up fighting no matter the score," said Coach Hageseth. "Everyone continued to improve as the tournament progressed. We saw a lot of things to be excited about. It was a very positive weekend."
All the Wildcats faced tough opponents in the first round of the ITA's, but stayed positive and stuck with game plans that helped carry them into the second round of the consolation.
Michaela Burroughs fell just short, 7-9 in a tie breaker, of taking her first round opponent to a 3rd set after fighting back in the second. However, that same determination paid off in the consolation first round when Michaela came back from being down 6-0, 3-0 to win 11-9 in a third set tie breaker against Gustavus' Annie Mahoney. Michaela played exceptional tennis to pull off a big time come back. She dropped the next match to Sydney Divelbiss of UW-Whitewater.
Maria Koval faced #6 seed Beth Larson right out of the gate. Maria stayed with Beth in the first set, losing only 4-6, but fell behind early in the second and wasn't able to recover. However, she breezed through the first round of consolation 6-0, 6-1. Maria then had her chances in the next round, especially early in the 2nd set, but her opponent played very well taking it 6-2, 6-3.
Mackenzie Weber battled well in the first round, but lost 6-2, 6-2. In the next round she staged another big Wildcat comeback. Mackenzie stayed with being aggressive from behind the baseline, weathered a 6-1 first set, and won 10-8 in a third set tie breaker. Unfortunately that momentum wasn't enough to get her through the following round.
Angie Lorenzen had a tough first round against UW-Lacrosse's #1 Mara Weiner. She bounced back in the consolation winning 6-2, 6-2. In the 2nd round of the consolation Angie played outstanding tennis winning the first set 6-4 and going up early in the 2nd. However, St. Olaf's Christine Muller fought back and won 10-6 in a 3rd set tie breaker. Coach Hagaseth noted that, "It was great to see how well Angie competed throughout the match."
The Wildcats did outstanding in the doubles as well. Koval and Burroughs had another tough first round in the ITA's having to face off against the #6 seed from St. Mary's. Groundstrokes and service returns were even, but the St. Mary's team was more dominate at the net leaving St. Kate's with a 8-4 loss. However, Koval/Burroughs continued to improve their play at the net and it carried them to the consolation semifinals, where they played well but couldn't quite get over the hump against UW-Lacrosse's top doubles team.
Lorenzen/Weber were serving for the match in the first round against a good Gustavus team, but weren't able to hold on and fell 9-7. They dropped their next match in the consolation too.
Another set of Wildcats competed at the Fall Invite going on at the same time. In that tournament
Bridget Ferrell came out strong winning her first match 6-1, 6-1. In the next round Bridget fought for every point right to the end, but came up short against Lizzie Carlson of St. Olaf.
Nora Bengel really did a great job competing in both of her matches, but fell to both Gustavus and Carleton opponents.
April Fard dropped her first round match 6-0, 6-2, but then made her way all the way to the consolation finals beating Hamline's Seubert and St. Olaf's Owsley, both 8-2, along the way.
In doubles action at the Fall Invite, Fard/Ferrell lost a closely contested first round match, but fought their way past Hamline and St. Olaf, where they dominated the net, to the consolation semifinals where they finally lost to a good team from Grinnell 8-2.
The team is looking forward to digging in for one more week of practice, and according to Coach Hagaseth they are now "even more excited about the upcoming season this spring."
Results
https://gustavus.edu/athletics/wt/fall/scoreboard.php
