GRAND FORKS, N.D.  – The University of Minnesota Crookston women's tennis team concluded the 2013 regular season with a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) victories, their first conference wins of the season and their second and third overall wins of the season, respectively. The matches were played at Choice Health & Fitness in Grand Forks, N.D. UMC picked up a 9-0 sweep of Bemidji State University to open the day and then upended Southwest Minnesota State University 6-3. The Golden Eagles' 9-0 victory over BSU is the first time since April 13, 2009 when UMC defeated University of Minnesota Morris that the Golden Eagles have swept a team.
 
The three wins for the Golden Eagles is the most since UMC won four matches during the 2011 season.
 
The Golden Eagles started their first match of Saturday by sweeping the doubles portion of the match 3-0. At No. 1 doubles Katelyn Johnson (Jr., Monticello, Minn.) and Catherine Brown (Fr., Powell Butte, Ore.) picked up their second doubles win of the weekend by defeating Caley Westin and Meg Hafdahl 8-5. At the No. 2 spot, UMC's pair of seniors Amanda Pihlaja (Duluth, Minn.) and Holly Roepke (Osage, Minn.) picked up their second victory of the weekend as the upended Evan Kolberg and Nikki Hedtke 8-5. The Golden Eagles won at No. 3 doubles due to an injury to one of the BSU netters.
 
The Golden Eagles won at No. 5 and No. 6 singles due to default since BSU didn't have enough players due to injury. In singles, Johnson started things out by defeating Hafdahl 6-2, 6-1 at the No. 1 slot to improve to 6-8 on the season. Brown moved the score to 7-0 for the match as the upended Hedtke 6-0, 6-0 to improve her season mark to 7-7 on the season. At No. 1 singles, Roepke defeated Westin 6-4, 6-1. Pihlaja rounded things out by defeating Kolberg 6-4, 6-1.
 
In the second match of the day as UMC took on Southwest Minnesota State, Johnson and Brown made it a 3-0 weekend as they took down Katie Kienitz and Crystal Overbaugh 8-5. At the No. 2 slot, Pihlaja and Roepke also moved to 3-0 on the weekend as they defeated Shelby Monahan and Hannah Hagen 8-2. At No. 3 doubles, the Mustangs' Samantha Ritter and Allison Niedert defeated Casey Paris (Jr., Fairmont, Minn.) and Amanda Newman (Jr., Rosemount, Minn.), 8-4.
 
In singles, Roepke won at No. 1 singles over Kienitz, 6-3, 6-1. At the No. 2 spot, Johnson made it a 3-0 weekend in singles as she defeated Monahan 6-0, 6-0 to improve to 7-8 in singles on the year. At the No. 3 spot, Brown also made it a sweep on the weekend as she defeated Overbaugh 6-2, 6-1. At No. 4 singles, Pihlaja defeated Hagen, 6-0, 6-3. At the No. 5 slot, SMSU's Ritter defeated Paris in three sets, 6-1, 0-6, 10-8. At No. 6 singles, Kayla Uphus upended Newman, 6-1, 6-1.
 
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The University of Minnesota Crookston is an NCAA Division II Institution and a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). The Golden Eagle Equestrian team is a member of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA).
                                       
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