Northern Kentucky University Athletics

Men's results | Women's results

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – The Northern Kentucky University men's and women's tennis teams clinched regular-season titles in the Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division with dramatic come-from-behind victories over Lewis University, 5-4 each.

With one match remaining in the regular-season, both Norse teams will be No. 1 seeds in next week's GLVC Tournament, which is being hosted by NKU.

Leading 2-1 after the men's doubles competition, Lewis took a quick 3-1 lead when Uno Lapimaa won the battle of Midwest Region top-5 players with a 6-4, 6-4 win over NKU's Martin Leroy. Lapimaa and Leroy are ranked first and fifth respectively according to the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

NKU (13-3, 4-0 GLVC) and Lewis (10-4, 2-2 GLVC) then traded wins in flights two and four to set up the exciting finish.

NKU's Andre Correa began the comeback with a hard-fought victory over Michael Wojnarowski in flight No. 3. Trailing late in the first set, Correa surged back to force a tiebreaker, which epitomized how tight the match was. Correa ended up winning the tiebreaker 12-10 before going on to take the match with a 6-2 win in the second set.

Tyler Fraser and Lee Lonergan the shut the door on any hopes Lewis had for stealing a win.

Fraser dominated Lorenz Pestinger 6-0, 6-1, a vast difference from the match they played against each other last year when Pestinger won 6-4, 6-3. Lonergan tore through Jonathan Teune with a 6-0, 6-4 straight sets victory.

Women's play also saw NKU come back from a 4-2 deficit, but unlike the men's match, The Norse actually had a 2-1 lead after the doubles portion of the match.

After dropping the top three singles flights, NKU's bottom three flights blitzed past the Flyers to mark their tenth win of the season. NKU now holds a 10-4 overall record with an unblemished 5-0 mark in GLVC East Division play. Lewis falls to 10-5 overall and 4-1 in conference play.

Jenny Hand got the comeback started with a straights sets victory over Jody Wagner in flight No.-4 action by scores of 6-2 and 6-4.

Jillian Sturgeon, who rode the momentum Hand had produced, easily defeated Bayley Brown by a final of 6-3, 6-1.

The Norse sealed the deal when Whitney Thomas, who hadn't played a singles match since the fall season due to an injury, downed Kendra Mills 6-0, 7-5 (7-3).

Both NKU tennis teams will be back in action tomorrow as they play host to Saint Joseph's College. Due to weather, the match has been moved to Beechmont Racquet Club in Cincinnati, Ohio, and will begin at noon.