Sophomore Morgan DeLange recorded a victory at No. 6 singles as the Sioux Falls women's tennis team fell to St. Cloud State University, 8-1, at the Fitness Evolution Tennis Center in St. Cloud, Minn. The Cougars bounced back later in the day to knock off Minnesota Crookston, 5-4.
“I'm very proud of my how well my players can bounce back from some close losses to compete right away again in tight matches and pull out a critical NSIC win,” said head coach Kevin Grebin.
USF improves its record to 7-8 on the year (5-5, NSIC).
In match one, the SCSU Huskies opened up the contest with three consecutive victories in doubles to jump ahead of the Cougars early.
DeLange earned the lone victory for USF at No. 6 singles with a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Tori Marlton.
The Cougars would return to the win column with a 5-4 against the UMC Golden Eagles. USF put money in the bank early, taking two of the three doubles matches. The wins did not come easy, as UMC's No. 1 duo of Catherine Brown and Katelyn Johnson played toe-to-toe with Alison Kauss and Molly Seigenthaler forcing a tiebreaker against the Sioux Falls pair. The Cougar duo would prevail with a 9-8 (8-6) victory.
“Key points won by Kauss/Seigenthaler in the #1 doubles tie-breaker proved to be the difference in getting our win today,” said coach Grebin. “Both played very well during some big points in that match.”
Stacey Beard and Karlee Sieve were defeated by Amanda Pihlaja and Holly Roepke at No. 2 doubles, 8-5. At the No. 3 spot, DeLange and Julia Iversen rolled Casey Paris and Amanda Newman, 8-2.
The squads split the six singles matches and the one extra doubles point would catapult the Cougars to the match victory.
In first flight singles, Alison Kauss knocked off Roepke, 6-2, 6-2. Rachel Hussey fell to Katelyn Johnson (6-2, 6-1) on court two. Stacey Beard was upended by
Brown, 6-1, 6-3 at No. 3 but Seigenthaler would clinch the match by defeating Pihlaja on court four, 6-3, 6-1.
Sieve dropped a tiebreaker at No. 5 singles to Paris 6-3, 2-6, 10-7. DeLange bageled Newman at the No. 6 slot.
“Strong performances by Kauss and Seigenthaler in singles and DeLange, who was solid in both singles and doubles, helped us to get the needed 5 wins for the match,” Grebin added.
The Cougars will wrap up regular season conference play next weekend in Aberdeen, S.D. USF will face Minnesota-Duluth on Friday and will wrap up the weekend with a dual against Northern State.
