OWENSBORO, Ky. – With a 9-0 victory over Kentucky Wesleyan College on Friday afternoon, the Northern Kentucky University women's tennis team clinched the second seed in next week's Great Lakes Valley Conference Tennis Championships. The NKU men's team also came away with a victory, an 8-1 decision over Brescia College.
The NKU women's team (16-6, 8-1 GLVC), which is currently the 34th-ranked squad in the country according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and the 4th-ranked team in the Midwest Region, used strong doubles play to jump out to a 3-0 lead over the Panthers (4-11, 0-9 GLVC) and would never look back.
Michelle Schirmann, who was named the GLVC Women's Tennis Player of the Week on Tuesday, teamed with Kristen Sunday to blank the Panther duo of Jennifer Settle and Katie Cecil by an 8-0 margin in flight two action.. Jenny Hand and Ivana Misic also put a goose egg on the scoreboard against Alycia Lynch and Heather Allgood in the third flight doubles match.
Stephanie Isaacs and Jillian Sturgeon rounded out the women's doubles action with an 8-6 win over Emily Harpe and Maddy Bogle.
In singles action, Maggie Koetter upped her season record to 20-2 with a blowout win over Cecil by a 6-0, 6-0 count. Misic, playing in her first singles match of the season, downed Lynch 6-1, 6-0.
The Norse would go on to get wins from Isaacs over Harpe (6-1, 6-3), Schirmann over Settle (1-6, 6-2, 6-0), Hand over Bogle (6-3, 6-3), and Sturgeon over Allgood (6-1, 6-2).
In men's action, NKU (14-7) faced the Bearcats of Brescia College as Kentucky Wesleyan does not sponsor men's tennis.
The Norse, who are the 8th-ranked team in the Midwest Region, got out to a fast start by winning all three doubles flights to go on to the 8-1 victory over the Bearcats (7-7).
Fritz Dlabik and Ignacio Ortiz (10-5) won their flight one match over Tomas Gajdusek and Tanguy Montoisy 8-5, while Lee Lonergan and Tyler Fraser downed Elvis Lane and Jason Grubbs 8-2. Felipe Rossetti and Jason Kramer would go on to defeat Jacob Blevins and Tim Porter 8-1 in third flight action.
The lone Brescia point came when Montoisy edged Knoll 6-3, 6-3, but it would be all NKU from there on out.
Dlabik needed a tiebreaker to win the first set over Gajdusek and cruise to a second set win to take the match 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. Dlabik ran his record to 12-6 on the season
Ricardo Weaver (12-5), who may be NKU's streakiest player with a 9-1 record in his last 10 matches, slipped past Barrett Smith 6-4, 6-3.
Kramer defeated Blevins (6-2, 6-2), Fraser downed Grubbs (6-1, 6-0), and Lonergan idled past Lane (6-0, 6-0) to round out the match for the Norse.
Both NKU teams will be back in action Saturday morning as they wrap-up the regular season with in-state foe Bellarmine University.
