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RIVER FALLS, Wis. — The Saint Mary's University women's tennis team had so much fun putting together an 8-1 victory over Concordia to kick off their busy weekend on Saturday, the Cardinals decided a repeat performance was in order on Sunday.
SMU got out to a 2-1 lead after the doubles portion of its nonconference match against UW-River Falls, then swept the six singles matches en route to its second straight 8-1 victory.
The Cardinals couldn't make it three straight 8-1 wins when they squared off against UW-Stout later in the day Sunday — but they sure came close, dropping the Blue Devils 7-2.
“It was a great day for us,” said SMU coach
Jeff Halberg. “We gained some much-needed momentum (with the win over Concordia) on Saturday and carried it over to today.
“The ladies played extremely well all weekend long and were rewarded for those efforts.”
The 8-1 final score may have made the Cardinals' win over UW-River Falls look like a cakewalk, but it was anything but, as all three doubles matches were decided by identical 8-4 scores — with SMU winning at No. 1 and No. 3 — while the Cardinals needed a third set in three of the six singles matches to secure the victory.
Lindsey Reinisch (Hastings, Minn.),
Katie Krull (Rochester, Minn.) and
Grace Zachman (Elk River, Minn.) were straight-set singles winners, while
Deanne Webber (Reedsburg, Wis.),
Rachel Luetmer (Loretto, Minn.) and
Leanne Cleveland (Rochester, Minn.) needed a decisive third set. Webber won 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 at No. 2, while Luetmer won 6-3, 4-6, 11-9 at No. 4 and Cleveland added a 3-6, 6-4, 10-5 win at No. 6.
SMU again jumped out to a 2-1 lead after doubles play against UW-Stout, with Reinisch, Webber, Krull, Cleveland and
Stacey Buss (Chicago, Ill.) adding straight-set singles wins.
The Cardinals, who improve to 10-8 overall with the back-to-back victories, are back in action next weekend, traveling to Macalester on Saturday, before closing out the regular-season with a road match at Saint Benedict on Sunday.
