Box Score MINNETONKA, Minn. – The University of Sioux Falls Women's Tennis Team (11-7), seeded No. 6, had their season end in a 5-1 loss to No. 3 seed Minnesota State Moorhead (15-3) on Saturday afternoon at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Women's Tennis Championships.
Despite the setback, USF head coach
Kevin Grebin was extraordinarily proud of his young team, who performed at a high level all season. The Cougars, which tied a DII-best with seven league wins, battled the No. 3 seed throughout the afternoon.
"I am really proud of their effort today and all season," said Grebin. "We had some good battles today and I was pleased to see our No. 1 doubles team of
Chloe Jefferies and
Joelle Thorfinnson earn a win. We have a lot to be proud of this season, including 11 season wins, winning records by nearly all the doubles teams and three of our players at singles. And, we did it with a very young team. We gave max effort all season and that will help each of these players moving forward. We will miss Cortney (McCans) but she was a great leader and will go on and do great things," he said. "
In NSIC Championship play, a match ends when the winning team accumulates five wins. MSUM won at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles and clinched the match with victories at No. 2, 4 and 6 singles.
The Cougars had their only victory at No. 1 doubles with redshirt freshman
Chloe Jefferies and freshman
Joelle Thorfinnson recorded an 8-6 verdict over MSUM's team of Julia Geske and Olivia Keelin. With the victory, the USF tandem finished 4-3 on the season with Jefferies, 11-7 overall at doubles and Thorfinnson, 10-8.
However, MSUM's Sweene Albert and Alexis Konecne defeated USF's No. 2 doubles team of
Lexi Miller and
Megan Quandt, both freshman, 8-2. Miller/Quandt finished the season 3-4. Miller was 9-9 overall in doubles and Quandt, 10-8. At No. 3 doubles, USF's
Kelsie Sanders and
Rachel Klatt battled but fell to MSUM's Emma Zamora and Ricquel Ramsbottom, 8-4. The Sanders/Klatt tandem finished the season 8-5. Klatt was a team-best 11-6 overall in doubles while Sanders was 8-5.
In singles, Quandt (2-16 on the year) fell to Keelin, 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 while Sanders (5-9 on the season) dropped a 6-1, 6-2 to Alyssa Wolff of MSUM at No. 4 singles.
Cortney McCans, finished her career at USF with a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Konecne. McCans concluded her career 19-20 in singles, including 7-11 in 2018.
In the other matches, Jefferies, who finished the year at 14-3, was dominating at No. 1 singles over Geske (up 6-0, 2-2) before play ended. At No. 3 singles, Miller, who had a 9-8 mark on the season, trailed Albert, 2-6, 3-4; and Thorfinnson, who was 11-6 this season, was trailing Ramsbottom, 5-7, 1-0 when play ended.
