LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Abilene Christian's sixth-ranked women's tennis team is moving on to the semifinals of the NCAA DII Championships following a 5-1 victory over No. 4 Lynn Thursday afternoon at E.P. Sawyer State Park.
The Wildcats (26-3) won two of three doubles matches and at No. 1, 3 and 5 singles positions vs. the Fighting Knights, who see their season end at 21-5. Junior
Hannah Kelley clinched the match with her 6-4, 6-2 triumph at No. 5 over Ana Kriz.
Kelley also won at No. 1 doubles with
Micah Hermsdorf as they started the match by crushing the third-ranked pair of Ioana Ivan and Sabine Krause, 8-1. Kelley and Hermsdorf have won six straight matches together at the top position as the tenth-ranked duo in DII, and are 18-3 overall.
Lynn briefly came back to tie the score at 1-1 with a win at No. 3 doubles, but then twin sisters Julia and
Laura Mongin finished their 8-1 victory at No. 2 almost immediately afterward, giving ACU a 2-1 lead heading into singles.
Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year
Brittney Reed was one of the first Wildcats to finish for the second straight day as she put ACU ahead 3-1 with her 6-2, 6-1 win at No. 3 vs. Kim Przeszlowski. The win was Reed's seventh in-a-row and her team-best 24th of the spring.
Second-ranked
Julia Mongin pushed the lead to 4-1 after silencing No. 3 Ivan in the second set, 6-0. Mongin edged Ivan in the first set, 6-4, and with the victory improved to 17-1 at No. 1 singles.
The remaining three singles matches were left unfinished, but
Laura Mongin was ahead of Andrea Berkova at No. 4, and
Emily Conrad led 5-4 in the second set vs. Roxanne Alexandru at No. 6. Thirty-sixth ranked Hermsdorf trailed No. 19 Krause in the third set.
Next up for the Wildcats on their road to a national title is undefeated and top-ranked BYU-Hawai'i, which improved to 29-0 following its 5-0 win today vs. Columbus State. The other side of the bracket will feature No. 2 Barry and the winner between No. 3 Armstrong Atlantic and and No. 5 Hawai'i Pacific.
