Women's tennis team gets big comeback win against St. Ben's

Michael Abdella
April 29, 2011

ST. JOSEPH, Minn.- In a match-up of teams that have already clinched their spots in the MIAC playoffs, the St. Olaf women's tennis team earned a 5-4 come-from-behind victory against St. Ben's in St. Joseph on Friday afternoon.

Coming into the match on a six match winning streak, St. Ben's started strong by winning two of the three doubles matches. Abby Ho and Christine Muller cruised to an 8-0 victory at first doubles, earning the Oles a vital point in a match that was as close as can be. Caitlin Harper and Claire Carlson lost their doubles match 8-2, while Sarah Magnuson and Julia Ellis lost a close match at third doubles 8-6.

Trailing 2-1 after doubles, the Oles needed to win four of the six singles matches to emerge victorious. Record-wise, the strength of St. Ben's singles line-up is at the fifth and sixth spots and Carlson and Magnuson lost at these spots to put the Oles in a 4-1 hole. This meant St. Olaf needed to win the final four singles matches and they did just that. One by one, Muller, Harper, and Ellis won their matches relatively easily at the second through fourth spots, meaning the match came down to the #1 singles match between Abby Ho and Kylie Huether. Ho won the first set and had match points at 5-2 in the second set but Huether came back to force a second set tiebreaker. Ho quickly regained momentum and won a close tiebreaker 7-5 to give the Oles a 5-4 win.

The Oles are back on court tomorrow (Saturday, April 30) at the 98th Street Lifetime Fitness where they face Bethel. Both the mens and womens matches start at noon.

Contact media relations specialist Mike Ludwig at (507) 786-3834 or ludwigm@stolaf.edu.