RIVER FOREST, Ill. – For the second time in three weeks, the Lakeland University women's tennis team accomplished a feat it had previously never performed in program history, winning a pair of dual matches on the same day Saturday afternoon.
The Muskies defeated Dominican University 7-2 to start the day, then traveled west and topped Aurora University 6-3 to cap the sweep of Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference foes. With the two wins and at 4-3 in league play, Lakeland all but wrapped up a spot in the NACC Tournament in the spring, as only a number of tiebreakers turning against it will keep the team out of the tourney, though it had not been officially wrapped up as of Saturday night yet.
The Muskies have qualified for the conference tourney just once before in the 2013-14 season, and their move up the conference standings has been a pleasant surprise for a program that had won just a combined three matches over the previous three seasons.
Lakeland showed better depth than its opponents on Saturday, dominating play at the lower singles flights and in doubles. The Muskies went 6-0 in singles matches at the No. 4-6 levels, and also won five of six doubles matches for the day.
Carly Brault (
Sr.-Brillion, Wis.),
Calley Wesemann (
Fr.-Watertown, Wis.) and
Abby Juozapaitis (
Fr.-North Prairie, Wis.) all went 2-0 in singles play for the day. Brault and Juozapaitis also both were part of doubles pairings that went 2-0 on the day, with Brault teaming with
Rachel Conery (
Sr.-Vulcan, Mich.) at No. 3 doubles and Juozapaitis joining
Emma Schad (
Jr.-Sheboygan Falls, Wis.) at No. 2 singles.
Schad and
Ann Schroeder (
Jr.-Lake Mills, Wis.) also added one singles win each for the day, with Schroeder topping Dominican's Elizabeth Cordes 7-5, 6-2 at No. 2 and Schad besting Celia Konen of Aurora 6-4, 6-2.
Ellie Roe (
Fr.-Plymouth, Wis.) also teamed up with Wesemann for an 8-4 win over Dominican's Cordes and Heidi Carvajal at No. 1 doubles.
The Muskies wrap up the regular season next Saturday when they host Milwaukee School of Engineering at 10 a.m. and Wisconsin Lutheran College at 2 p.m., both at Sports Core in Kohler.
Results Lakeland 7 Dominican 2
Results Lakeland 6 Aurora 3
