UMAC Game of the Week: St. Scholastica at Northwestern: Men's and Women's Tennis
UMAC Game of the Week Archives
ST. PAUL -- The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Game of the Week is a feature that takes place each week throughout the conference portion of the season with one contest being selected and highlighted as the UMAC Game of the Week.
The week's UMAC Game of the Week will take place on Thursday, March 28 as St. Scholastica travels to face Northwestern for men's and women's tennis at Lifetime Fitness in Fridley, Minn.
MEN'S TENNIS
About the Saints
The Saints defeated North Central University in the conference opener on Friday at the Arrowhead Tennis Center, surrendering just two games in the victory. CSS enters Thursday’s contest having not lost a conference regular season dual match since the 1997 season, a string of 106 straight dual match victories. The Saints started the season a program-best 6-0, before having key injuries near the top of the lineup, which hurt the team during its Spring Trip. The strength this season for the Saints has been their depth with a combined record of 32-13 at No. 4, 5 and 6 singles. Guthrie Coughlin has won four straight singles matches. The No. 3 doubles team of Tyler Bates and Cody Mauston has won a team-high seven matches.
About the Eagles
Northwestern enters Thursday’s match having played just one UMAC contest thus far in 2013 as the Eagles swept Bethany Lutheran 9-0 in Fridley on Tuesday. Four NWC singles players earned 6-0, 6-0 victories in that match while two of the doubles matches were also shutouts in the Eagles’ favor.
Northwestern is 4-7 overall this season, having won two of the last three matches, suffering a close 5-4 defeat to Concordia-Moorhead on March 22. No. 1 singles player David Knight has gone 7-4 in his individual contests this year, all at the Eagles’ top spot. Knight, a two-time UMAC All-Conference player and the 2011 league player of the year, teams up with Keagan Blancke, NWC’s No. 2 singles player, in doubles action where the pair is currently riding a three-match winning streak. Blancke has gone 6-5 in singles action in 2013 and is also riding a three-match streak.
Series History
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The Saints have won 39 straight against the Eagles with the lone loss coming in 1994 by an 8-1 decision.
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CSS narrowly defeated the Eagles 5-4 in last year’s UMAC Championship match.
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Head coach Wells Patten has never lost to the Eagles.
WOMEN'S TENNIS
About the Saints
The Saints enter Thursday’s dual match winners of six of their last seven matches. CSS is coming off a 9-0 victory over North Central University on Friday in the conference opener. The Saints were perfect, not dropping a single game in the nine matches. CSS has never been defeated in UMAC play, since the league was established in 1997. The streak is currently at 102 matches. Hillary Bungarden has won seven straight matches at No. 1 singles and has a team-high 11 wins overall. Bungarden, only a junior, is tied for the sixth-most singles wins in a career in program history (48). The 2012 UMAC Player of the Year has already broken the program record for most wins in a career at the No. 1 singles flight (25). Senior Megan Lawrence is second on the team with 10 wins, including six straight. CSS is 57-21 in singles matches this spring. Bungarden has teamed with Alexis Gunderson at No.1 doubles and lead the squad with eight victories.
About the Eagles
The Northwestern College women’s tennis team enters Thursday’s UMAC match against St. Scholastica having won four of its last five contests, with the Eagles’ lone loss during that stretch coming in a 5-4 battle against Millsaps on March 11. NWC started its UMAC campaign on Tuesday of this week, defeating Bethany Lutheran 9-0 at Lifetime Fitness in Fridley, where Thursday’s conference bout will take place. Five of the six singles players for Northwestern earned a 6-0 set victory in their individual matches.
Sophomore Megan Johnson has found the most success so far for Northwestern, winning five of the eight No. 1 singles matches she’s played in. Freshman Aubree Else has also come on strong as of late, going 4-1 in a combination of Nos. 4, 5 and 6 singles contests. Megan Johnson and Kelly Johnson have been the Eagles’ go-to combination for No. 1 doubles action, and their outcome on Thursday could be an indication of how the entire match will go. In matches that the Johnson pair has won, Northwestern has also claimed victory as a team. But in the four doubles matches that the two have lost, so too have the Eagles.
Series History
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The Saints have never lost to the Eagles and the most matches Northwestern have ever won against CSS in a dual match has been three.
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The teams met in last year's UMAC Championship with the Saints coming out on top 7-2.
Men: Northwestern recap | St. Scholastica recap Results: CSS 6, NWC 3
Women: Northwestern recap | St. Scholastica recap Results: CSS 6, NWC 3