Minneapolis – The Gustavus women’s tennis team suffered its first loss in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play on Sunday, falling to St. Catherine University 7-2 at the Baseline Center in Minneapolis. The Wildcats opened the match with a clean sweep through the doubles portion of the contest and hung on from there. With Sunday’s results, the Gusties drop to 13-4 overall and 6-1 in the MIAC, while St. Kate’s improves to 11-5 overall and 7-1 in league play.
The Wildcats opened the match with three straight wins, sweeping the doubles competition. All three doubles matches were tightly contested, but St. Kate’s pulled out each, winning 8-6 at first doubles and 9-7 at both second and third doubles.
St. Catherine then captured wins in four of the six singles matches to hang on to the 7-2 win. Gustavus got wins at third and fourth singles from Lizzy Stanczyk (Fy., Plymouth, Wis.) and Sidney Dirks (So., St. Peter, Minn.). Stanczyk defeated Kylie Ketcho 6-0, 6-4 at No. 3 and Dirks added a 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 4.
Three other singles matches came down to the third set at second, fifth, and sixth singles, but the Gusties could not get the key win they needed, as the Wildcats sealed the win with all three close wins.
Gustavus will be back in action on Saturday, April 19th when it hosts Carleton College at 2:00 p.m., at the Brown Tennis Courts.