The Gustavus women's tennis team earned its 27th MIAC Championship on Sunday and will head into this week's playoffs as the No. 1 seed. (Photo courtesy of Blake Dirks)
SAINT PETER, MINN. – With two conference victories in the past two days, including a 9-0 win over the College of Saint Benedict at the Brown Outdoor Tennis Complex on Sunday afternoon, the Gustavus Adolphus women’s tennis team returned to the top of the MIAC for the first time since 2011 to earn its 27th conference championship. The Gusties’ victory over the Blazers put them at a perfect 10-0 in conference play this season, and makes them the No. 1 seed going into this week’s MIAC Women’s Tennis Playoffs, meaning they will have home-court advantage throughout.
“It means so much to win the conference…this team truly deserves it,” said senior Laurel Krebsbach (North Oaks, Minn.). “We have worked so hard as a team every day with this goal in mind. I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates and their fight this season. Every day the team comes to practice to get better, push one another, and are so supportive of one another. When I go out on court, I know my teammates will fight until the last point. We have the potential to keep doing great things this season because of this.”
Senior Laurel Krebsbach won both her singles and doubles match to help Gustavus win its 27th MIAC Championship on Sunday.
The Gusties opened their match against the Blazers with a clean sweep in doubles, including an 8-1 win from the tandem of Krebsbach and Sid Dirks (Jr., St. Peter, Minn.) at the No. 1 position.
Gustavus continued its dominance into singles play, and won each of the six singles matches in straight sets to clinch the 9-0 victory and help return the MIAC title to Saint Peter after a three-year absence. The Gusties won 20-straight MIAC championships from 1992-2011 before Carleton ended the Gusties two-decade run in 2012. Head coach Jon Carlson’s program has now won all but seven of the conference championships in the sport’s 34-year history.
“Today has been a very emotional day for me personally, as this is the first time I have won a conference championship here at Gustavus,” said Krebsbach. “So to finally achieve a goal I’ve been chasing for so long feels great, and it makes it even better to have accomplished it with such awesome teammates.”
With it clinching the No. 1 seed, Gustavus will have a bye in the playoff’s opening round and will begin play on Friday at 4:30 p.m. at the Brown Outdoor Tennis Complex. The Gusties will face the winner of Wednesday’s quarterfinal matchup between the No. 4 seed St. Olaf College and No. 5 seed St. Catherine University. Gustavus defeated St. Olaf 8-1 and St. Catherine 7-2 in its matches with the two teams earlier this season. Fans can learn more about the MIAC Playoffs, by checking out the playoff homepage and can also track the playoff action on the MIAC Scoreboard or the MIAC mobile app.