Nicholls Edges McNeese State 4-3 to Reach Championship Match
Southland Conference
WOMEN'S BRACKET |
PHOTO GALLERY |
CHAMPIONSHIP PAGE
BEAUMONT, Texas – The top-seeded Nicholls women’s tennis team advanced to its first Southland tournament championship match since 1995 after edging fourth-seeded McNeese State 4-3 in the 2015 Southland Conference Women’s Tennis Tournament semifinals Saturday afternoon at the Beaumont Municipal Tennis Center.
Nicholls jumped out to a 1-0 lead after claiming doubles victories at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. The Colonels’ Marie Aubert and Milou Pietersz defeated the Cowgirls’ Hannah Brett and Julia Kral at the second position 8-2, while the all-conference first-team doubles duo of Stephanie Barnett and Klara Skopac earned an 8-5 win at the top spot over the all-Southland tandem of Klaudia Gawlik and Anastasija Trubich, 8-5, to clinch the doubles point.
No. 3 doubles was left unfinished with McNeese’s Sarah Jurakova and Vivien Borbely ahead 6-4 on Nicholls’ Kateryna Nakonechna.
Singles play began with the Colonels’ Aubert making quick work of the Cowgirls’ Brett, 6-0, 6-2. Southland player of the year Barnett of Nicholls increased the Colonels’ lead to 3-0 as she won at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-3, over McNeese’s first-team all-conference selection Gawlik.
The Cowgirls got on the board as Jurakova topped the Colonels’ Pietersz, 6-2, 6-3. McNeese then tied the score at 3 a piece with Borebly winning 7-5, 6-4 against Nicholls’ Nakonechna at No. 5 singles and all-conference first-team selection Kral defeating the Colonels’ Skopac in three sets, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, at the second position.
For the second day in a row, Nicholls’ all-conference singles player Isla Brock provided the clinching win as she earned a close, three-set victory at No. 6 singles. Brock lost the first set to the Cowgirls’ Trubich 6-3 before coming back to claim the final two sets and the match, 7-5, 7-5.
The Colonels (20-4) will now face No. 3 seed Northwestern State (15-8) tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. CST in Beaumont for the 2015 Southland Conference Women’s Tennis Tournament title. The Lady Demons earned a 4-3 win over seventh-seeded New Orleans in the other semifinals Saturday afternoon. The winner of the Southland tournament championship match will receive the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA championship.
Earlier this month, Nicholls was a 4-0 winner at Northwestern State on April 10.
The Colonels are looking for their second overall tournament title as they won the 1995 Southland championship match against former conference-member Louisiana-Monroe, 5-2.
Admission is free to all matches of the Southland Conference Women’s Tennis Tournament, for more information regarding results, records and more please visit
Southland.org.