Mastodons Advance to NCAA Tournament for the Second-Consecutive Year

Saturday, April 23

Fort Wayne, IN

1:00 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

UMKC

Mastodons earn second-straight bid to the NCAA tournament after defeating UMKC 4-0

Mastodons Advance to NCAA Tournament for the Second-Consecutive Year

4/23/2011 5:17:17 PM | Women's Tennis

Results

Fort Wayne, IN - For the second-straight year, the IPFW women's tennis team won the Summit League Championship en route to a bid to the NCAA Tournament. In their 30th match of the season, the 'Dons had a 4-0 shutout over the No. 3 seed UMKC Kangaroos on Saturday afternoon at the Pine Ridge Raquet and Fitness Club in Fort Wayne.

"I am so proud of the way our team has competed all season," Head coach Eric Burns said. "We had a tougher schedule than last year and we were able to battle through it and achieve our best record in school history and two championships," Burns said.

After defeating Oral Roberts, 4-0, on Friday in the semi-finals, the Mastodons faced the Kangaroos after UMKC upset the No. 2 seed Southern Utah, 4-2.

The 'Dons earned the doubles point to get the 1-0 lead over the Kangaroos after picking up wins at Nos. 3 and 2, respectively. The IPFW duo of Raquel Vescovi and Yuka Kobayashi had another fast victory after defeating UMKC's Gabby Pintos and Jillian Yakominich, 8-2. IPFW's Caterina Kiefer and Alex Fosyth sealed IPFW's doubles point after defeating Laura Bouet and Suzan Lisenby, 8-4.

In singles action, the Mastodons kept the momentum up as they claimed Nos. 4, 3 and 5, respectively. In IPFW's first singles win of the day, Kiefer dominated the No. 4 position in a 6-3, 6-0 win. At the No. 3 slot, Vescovi had a perfect first set win at 6-0 and continued to dominate in the second set, 6-2. At the No. 5 spot, Kobayashi sealed IPFW's 4-0 win after she won 6-1, 6-1.

The two-time Summit League tournament champions and three-time regular season league champs made it to the first round of the NCAA tournament last year, however, IPFW fell short 4-0 against No. 5 seed Notre Dame.

The Mastodons look for another chance at the NCAA tournament and will find out their first-round opponent of the 2011 NCAA tournament on May 3rd when live coverage of the NCAA Selection Show will be aired at NCAA.com at 5:00 p.m. (EST)

"We are so excited to represent our school and conference in the NCAA tournament," Burns said.

~Dons~

IPFW 4, UMKC 0

Doubles
1. Eva Dalvai/Chelsea Horner (UMKC) vs. Amy Recht/Ingrid Ballus (IPFW), 7-3, unfinished
2. Caterina Kiefer/Alex Forsyth (IPFW) def. Laura Bouet/Suzan Lisenby (UMKC), 8-4
3. Yuka Kobayashi/Raquel Vescovi (IPFW) def. Gabby Pintos/Jilian Yakominich (UMKC), 8-2

Singles
1. Dalvai (UMKC) vs. Recht, 6-3, 4-3, unfinished
2. Ballus vs. Bouet (UMKC), 6-3, 2-1, unfinished
3. Vescovi def. Horner (UMKC), 6-0, 6-2
4. Kiefer def. Lisenby (UMKC), 6-3, 6-0
5. Kobayashi def. Yakominich (UMKC), 6-1, 6-1
6. Forsyth vs. Pintos (UMKC), 6-2, 4-1, unfinished