SIOUX FALLS – After one of its most successful seasons at the DII level, the University of Sioux Falls Women's Tennis Team (11-6) has earned a berth in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Championships for the fourth time in five seasons.

The Cougars, picked eighth in the NSIC preseason coaches poll, finished in a tie at 7-4 for fourth place in the NSIC with Bemidji State and Minnesota Duluth but will be seeded No. 6 after losing out in tiebreakers. USF will match up with No. 3 seed Minnesota State Moorhead (14-3) in the eight-team single elimination tournament, which will be held on Saturday and Sunday, April 21-22 at the Lifetime Fitness in Minnetonka, Minn. The quarterfinal matches will be held on Saturday with the semifinals and finals set for Sunday.

No. 2 seed Winona State (13-2) will face No. 7 seed Minnesota State (5-11) at 9 a.m., on Saturday, followed by USF-MSUM at 11:30 a.m. No. 1 seed Augustana (18-3) will meet No. 8 U-Mary (6-9). No. 4 Bemidji State (9-4) will take on No. 5 Minnesota Duluth (9-4) at 4:30 p.m. to wrap up the first day of action. Earlier this year, USF lost a 7-2 decision to MSUM, which had a 9-2 record in the NSIC and finished third in the standings.

The NCAA Central Region is comprised of the 29 teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (12), Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) (10), and the Great American Conference (GAC) (7). The post season tournament winner from each conference receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament on April 28-29 and will be joined by the next three highest ranked teams in the final rankings. Two teams from each of the eight regions will advance to the final site, which will be played May 8-11 at Surprise Tennis Complex in Surprise, Arizona. The NCAA women's tennis selections will be announced on Tuesday, April 24 at www.NCAA.com.

USF ties 2015, 2016 teams for most wins in NSIC play
USF finished with the second most overall wins (11) in NCAA DII-program history and tied the 2015 and 2016 teams for most conference wins (7) this season.  The Cougars, directed by head coach Kevin Grebin (52-49, 32-31 in NSIC), finished with a 6-2 home record, was 4-2 on neutral floors and 1-2 on the road.  This season, the Cougars accumulated a 51-51 overall regular season mark in singles matches, including 34-32 in the NSIC. They also had a 31-20 mark in doubles, including 21-12 in league play.

McCans to play in her final NSIC Tourney
Cortney McCans, a senior exercise major from Kingman, Ariz., has been one of the leaders on the team for the past two seasons.  She will play in her final NSIC Postseason Tournament. To this point in her career, she has an 19-19 career record in singles, playing at No. 5 and No. 6. In league play, she has a 9-12 mark. McCans also has a 6-8 career mark in doubles, including 5-5 in league play. This season, McCans is 7-10, including 4-7 in league play, at No. 6 singles for USF. At USF, she has been on a team that finished 12-8 and reached the NSIC Tournament semifinals in 2015-16. Overall, she led USF to a 39-31 record, including 24-20 in the NSIC.

Jefferies compiles best-ever DII singles mark at USF
Redshirt freshman Chloe Jefferies has put together the best season by a USF Women's Tennis player in the NCAA DII era. With a 2-0 mark against St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth to close the regular season, Jefferies ran her winning streak to five matches, improving to 14-3 overall and 10-1 in the NSIC. Both marks by Jefferies are a DII program-best. She was 1-1 in tiebreakers with a 7-6, 1-6, 14-12 in over Erin Streeter of Minnesota State on Feb. 9 and a 6-1, 5-7, 7-10 loss to Kristine Gregeshidze of Charleston on March 14. Earlier this spring, Jefferies became just the second USF player in program DII history to earn NSIC Player of the Week honors.

Four times, Jefferies has had 6-0, 6-0 decisions and captured straight-set wins in 12-of-17 matches. In fact, she lost two or fewer games in 11 of her victories. Earlier this year against MSUM, she recorded a 6-4, 6-1 win over MSUM's No. 1 Gabby Tellijohn.

In addition, she has teamed with freshman Megan Quandt at No. 1 doubles to improve to go 7-4 on the season, including 5-2 in league play.  Most recently, she has been paired with Joelle Thorfinnson at No. 1 with the tandem putting together a 3-3 mark, including 2-2 in NSIC play.

Quandt/Miller are 3-3 at No. 2 doubles
At No. 2 singles, Quandt was 2-15 overall and 1-10 in NSIC play in singles.  Overall in doubles, Quandt had a regular season mark of 10-7, including 7-4 in league play. Most recently, she teamed with freshman Lexi Miller to go 3-3, including 2-2 in league play.

At No. 3 singles, freshman Lexi Miller had a regular season mark of 9-8, including 7-4 in league play, Four times she won in straight-sets. Miller, who owns three straight match wins, was involved in five matches decided by a tie-breaker with a 4-1 mark. Against MSUM, Miller registered a 1-6, 7-6 (7-3), 1-0 (13-11) verdict over Alyssa Wolf.

Overall in doubles, she had  a 9-8 record, including 6-5 in league play with two different players. Aside from Quandt, she was teamed with Joelle Thorfinnson, compiling a 6-5 mark, including 4-3 in league play.

Sanders, Klatt have strong season at No. 3 doubles 
At No. 4 singles, sophomore Kelsie Sanders was 5-8 overall, including 2-5 in league play.  In doubles, she had an 8-4 overall mark with a 5-2 record in NSIC matches while teaming with freshman Rachel Klatt. As for Klatt, she finished 2-1 in singles and had an 11-5 overall mark in doubles, including 7-3 in NSIC play. Klatt also was paired with McCans in doubles, registering a 3-1 mark, 2-1 in NSIC play.

 Thorfinnson opens collegiate career at 11-6
in her first collegiate season, Joelle Thorfinnson shined at No. 5 singles after putting together a regular season mark of 11-5, including 7-4 in league play. She has recorded straight-set victories in 10 of her 11 singles victories, including her last seven. She also finished the regular season 9-8 in doubles, including 6-4 in league competition. She had a 6-5 doubles mark at No. 2 doubles with Lexi Miller and was 3-3, 2-2 in NSIC play, at No. 1 singles with Jefferies.