BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The IUP women's tennis team will defend its conference title after the Crimson Hawks advanced to the 2018 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championship with a 5-0 win over West Chester in the semifinals Friday at the Burt Reese Tennis Center.
The Crimson Hawks will be making the program's eighth straight appearance in the PSAC title match. They'll face Mercyhurst on Saturday after the Lakers defeated Bloomsburg 5-0 in the other semifinal match.
RESULTS
IUP defeated Mercyhurst 5-2 in last year's PSAC championship.
Julia Newman (Tauranga, New Zealand/Tauranga Girls' College) clinched the win with a 6-0, 6-0 victory at the fifth singles spot over West Chester's Julia Mowery. Both of IUP's singles wins were shutouts as
Mariana Valenzuela (Bogotá, Colombia/George Berkeley School) defeated Sofia von der Heyde 6-0, 6-0 at six.
IUP cruised through doubles play, starting with an 8-0 win at three from Newman and Valenzuela.
Jarka Petercakova (Bratislava, Slovakia/Sport Gymnasium) and
Luise von Agris (Castrop-Rauxel, Germany/Adalbet-Stifter-Gymnasium) picked up an 8-2 win at the top spot, and
Katya Minchenkova (Mytishchi, Russia/Secondary School No.12) and
Nicole Beidacki (Porto Alegre, Brazil/Colegio Sao Judas Tadeu) won 8-4 at two.
The Crimson Hawks came into the match ranked No. 38 in the latest ITA Division II rankings and No. 1 in this week's NCAA Division II Atlantic Region rankings.
IUP-Mercyhurst
The Crimson Hawks defeated Mercyhurst 7-2 in the regular season, a win that clinched the PSAC West regular season title. Since the 2010-11 season the Crimson Hawks are 13-2 against the Lakers.
Follow
For up-to-date game information, visit www.IUPAthletics.com and follow IUP women's tennis on Twitter @IUPCrimsonHawk and @IUPtennis.
