Megan Gaard rips a forehand
The Gustavus women’s tennis team defeated Luther College 5-0 in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional, which is being played at the Brown Outdoor Tennis Complex on the Gustavus campus. The Gusties, who have advanced to the NCAA Region Championship match for the 10th consecutive year, will play the winner of the UW-Whitewater/Wheaton match on Saturday at 12 pm (CST). The winner of that match will advance to the NCAA Team Finals, which will be held at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia on May 25-27.
The Gusties, who are seeded #1 in the Midwest Region Tournament, claimed all three doubles matches and then won the #3 and #5 singles matches to clinch the 5-0 win over #4 seed Luther. Gustavus improves to 32-10 overall, while Luther completes its season at 26-5.
In doubles play, Gustavus took a 1-0 lead when Marianne Barau and Megan Gaard defeated Katie Nichols and Alana Humpal 8-1 at the #2 position. Sierra Krebsbach and Sam Frank defeated Kelsie Allen and Brynne Zinnecker 8-3 at the #1 spot and then Ali O’Neal and Maria Bryan knocked off Katy Lindstrom and Fran Fairfield 8-5 at the #3 position.
Ali O'Neal and Maria Bryan
In singles play, Ali O’Neal registered a 6-3, 6-2 win over Cassandra Chalhoub at the #5 position to extend the lead to 4-0 and then Marianne Barau picked up the decisive fifth point when she defeated Alana Humpal 6-2, 7-5 at the #2 position. Gustavus was leading at the #1, #4, and #6 matches when play was stopped because the Gusties had earned the necessary five points to win the match. Luther was leading at the #2 spot.