DE PERE, Wis. – The Lakeland University women's tennis team got in one final competition before the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament and dropped a close dual against St. Norbert College Sunday.
The Muskies fell by a 6-3 score to the fellow NACC Tournament-qualifying Green Knights. Lakeland is now 5-8 overall on the season and will face Wisconsin Lutheran College in the first round of the conference tourney Tuesday.
The Muskies lost to St. Norbert (7-11 overall) for the second time this season but showed improvement in some ways, including winning one more match than a 7-2 dual loss back on Oct. 1.
Mary Blossom (
Fr.-Farmington Hills, Mich.) picked up a big hard-earned win at No. 2 singles, going three sets with SNC's Emma Merrill before prevailing 7-6, 4-6, 7-5, reversing the result of their earlier meeting when Merrill won in three sets in October.
Clare Kelnhofer (
So.-Brandon, Wis.) also added a singles win, coming back after losing the first set to defeat Anna Krupka 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6 singles.
Lakeland also added a win at No. 2 doubles, where
Olivia Heling (
Fr.-West Bend, Wis.) and
Kassidee Webb (
Fr.-Castroville, Texas) edged Megan Pankow and Grace Peters 8-7. The Muskies' nearest loss came at No. 5 singles, where
Sadie Conway (
Jr.-Monroe, Wis.) won the first set before falling to Mallory Names in three sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
The Muskies enter the NACC tourney as the No. 6 seed and will face the third-seeded Warriors Tuesday starting at 10:30 a.m. at Hart Park in Wauwatosa.
