Results

The St. Catherine University tennis team has been off to one of its best starts in program history going undefeated through its first nine matches and earning the No. 6 spot in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Region rankings released March 14. The Wildcat squad also defeated Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) perennial powerhouse teams Carleton College and Gustavus Adolphus College to claim sole possession of first place in the conference standings heading into the latter half of the season. 

However, the Wildcats faced a different test when they travelled to Texas for three matches against regionally-ranked opponents from the West. Unfortunately, the Wildcats' nine-match winning streak came to end when the University of Texas at Dallas defeated the Wildcats 9-0 Monday in Richardson, Texas. 

The Comet squad – which holds the No. 15 rank in the West region – opened the match with a sweep of doubles to take an early 3-0 lead and never looked back. The doubles loss was just the first this season for the No. 2 pair of Michaela Burroughs (Waterloo, Neb.) and Maria Koval (Green Bay, Wis.).

The No. 3 team of Angie Lorenzen (Mitchell, S.D.) and Mikinzee Salo (Brainerd, Minn.) also suffered its first loss of the 2013 season by a narrow margin of 8-6. 

In singles play, Victoria Bravo (Tucson, Ariz.) appeared she might remain undefeated at the No. 1 spot as she won the first set 6-4 over the Comets' Casey Johnson. However, she would eventually drop the second set 7-5 before falling 10-3 in the third set super tiebreaker. 

Lorenzen also kept her singles match close as she defeated Jean-Jean Gwo 7-6 in the first set. Gwo then rebounded with a 6-0 win in the second set and then sealed up the victory with a close 10-7 win in the final tiebreaker. 

The Wildcats will look to rebound Tuesday against another ranked squad in the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. The match is scheduled for 4 p.m. in Belton, Texas. 

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