BOLIVAR, Mo. – The No. 20 Cameron University women’s tennis team secured its second consecutive trip to the NCAA National Championships today by defeating No. 14 Southwest Baptist 5-2 in regional competition. The CU squad is now 23-4 on the season, making it the winningest season in the program’s history.
The Aggie women got off to a great start in doubles play. Amanda Moberg and Sara Londono were the first to clasp victory, as they dominated the pair of Fanni Varga and Mehak Singh in an 8-2 decision at the top spot. The talented twosome of Julia Puckhaber and Elvira Sholles had no problems dishing out defeat to their counterparts of Adrienn Kovacs and Faiga Schmidt at the No. 2 slot. The CU duo came away with a routine 8-3 result.
The Black and Gold tandem of Florenica Tornero and Antonia Moberg put up a fight at the No. 3 position. The partners did well to push the match to a tiebreaker, but came up just short falling to Andjela Panovski and Crystal Guiot 9-8(5).
Cameron tennis coach James Helvey said he felt good about the women’s doubles results and acknowledged it put the team in a good position for singles play.
“Our No. 1 and No. 2 doubles teams came ready to play and took it to them quickly,” he said. “I think going down 2-1 in doubles really took the wind out of SBU’s sails, and they knew they had a long road ahead of them in singles.”
The Aggie women came out and made quick work of their singles contests. Sholles wasted no time dispatching Panovski at the No. 4 spot. The CU junior easily topped the Bearcat in an impressive 6-0, 6-2 rout, allowing her to improve her singles record to an incredible 24-2.
Londono was the next to collect a win. She dismantled Kovacs 6-3, 6-1 at the No. 3 slot, putting the Black and Gold up 4-1 over SBU.
Despite her best effort, Tornero was unable to overcome Schmidt at No. 5 and fell in a close 6-4, 6-4 decision, making the overall score 4-2.
Puckhaber, Amanda Moberg and Antonia Moberg were all up a set and had the opportunity to seal an Aggie win on their racquet, but it would be No. 28 Puckhaber would close out the match for CU. Puckhaber proved to be a thorn in the side of No. 16 Singh. Her workman-like performance earned her the 7-5, 6-4 victory and secured the Black and Gold a place in the NCAA Round of 16 for the second year in a row.
Helvey said that he was more than pleased with the women’s results and admitted that this match-up has been on the team’s mind for quite a while, but the result left the team feeling even better than they expected.
“Today felt really good. We have been talking about this match against SBU for a while, even before we were certain we would face them in regionals. We knew what we had to do to beat them and we were ready to take care of business,” he said. “We did what we came here to do and the women are feeling really good and are so excited. They are screaming all over the place and can’t stop smiling.”
Round of 16 play will kick off in three weeks, but for now the women will shift their focus to the classroom.
“Now the team is moving its attention to finals. They are focusing on continuing to make great grades,” Helvey said. “We have a few weeks until nationals, so we will get through finals first and then start talking about a practice schedule.”
The NCAA National Championships are scheduled to be held May 16-19 in Louisville, Ky. More information regarding the National Championships will be provided as it becomes available.
