MADISON, Wis. – The Gustavus women's tennis team concluded the annual Midwest Invite on Saturday, April 5, with a 5-2 win in a third-place match against No. 23 Denison (Ohio). The Gusties finished the weekend 2-1 against a trio of nationally-ranked teams, defeating No. 43 Hope (Mich.) the day prior, followed by a narrow 4-3 loss to No. 21 Whitman Friday night.
Molly Austin (Jr., Arden Hills, Minn.) who dropped a nail-biting deciding point singles match to end Friday's competition, earned tiebreaker redemption alongside partner
Lanie Davis (Fy., St. Louis, Mo.) to help Gustavus claim the doubles point against the Big Red.
Karina Elvestrom (Fy., Minnetonka, Minn.) and
Kaya De Bruijn (Jr., Maasland, Netherlands) won 6-3 at No. 1, followed by a 6-1 defeat at No. 3 for
Ella De Young (So., Iowa City, Iowa) and
Brooke Haddorff (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.), leaving the doubles point to the No. 2 team of Austin and Davis.
Denison led throughout nearly the entire match, jumping out to a 5-1 advantage over the Gusties. Austin and Davis battled to a tie at 5-5, followed by another point from the Big Red for the 6-5 lead. Austin and Davis forced the tiebreaker, going down 5-3 before rattling off three consecutive points to claim the 7-6 win via an 8-6 tiebreaker.
In singles play, Elvestrom was efficient at No. 1, claiming a 6-0, 6-2 win over Denison's Peyton Oda. Austin claimed the next point with 6-4, 6-2 wins at No. 3, while Davis went 6-3, 6-1 at No. 6. Davis claimed her fifth consecutive victory, eighth in her last nine, and finished the weekend undefeated in both singles and doubles. De Bruijn added a 6-2, 7-5 win at No. 2 for the last Gustie win of the weekend.
Noor Omar (Fy., Fridley, Minn.) nearly made it a 6-1 match, but fell in a tiebreaker at No. 5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-10.
The Gusties return for another busy weekend April 12-13, playing five matches in two days, including another trip to Wisconsin to face UW-River Falls (4-9, 1-5 WIAC) and UW-Stout (4-13, 0-6 WIAC), as well as MIAC matches against St. Catherine (10-3, 5-2 MIAC), St. Olaf (9-0, 6-0 MIAC), and Saint Benedict (4-6, 1-3 MIAC).
