SIOUX CITY, Iowa – In a matchup of fellow 2021 GPAC regular season co-champions, the Concordia University Women’s Tennis team came up on the short end on Saturday (March 26). The host Mustangs swept through doubles and won all but one singles contest in a 6-1 team decision. The highlight for the Bulldogs was a victory at No. 1 singles by Sofia Morales.
Head Coach Cam Long continues to bring along a young squad with a much different look from a year ago when Concordia went 6-1 in conference regular season play. This year’s team is now 2-7 overall.
“Morningside won the conference last season, so we knew it was going to be tough from the start,” Long said. “They have a deep roster and all play smart tennis. I thought we came out ready to go and weren’t intimidated by them. We just made a few more errors than they did and that was the difference today.”
Indeed, the Mustangs backed up their share of the GPAC regular season title last season by going on to win the conference tournament championship, earning a bid to play at the national tournament. In Saturday’s doubles action, Morningside won by 6-2 scores at the Nos. 2 and 3 spots. The Bulldog duo of Morales and Tessa Blough was narrowly defeated at No. 1, 7-5.
A native of Bogotá, Colombia, Morales is hoping to prove she’s one of the very best in the GPAC. She went head-to-head with the Mustangs’ Emily Clotfelter at No. 1 and emerged with a 6-3, 6-3, victory. Morningside came out on top in the Nos. 2 through 6 spots, which were held down in the Concordia lineup by Blough, Tara Ferrel, Brooke Hosick, Megan Hakes and Kylie Freudenburg, in that order. At No. 4, Hakes nearly forced a super tiebreaker in a 6-0, 7-5, decision.
Morningside finished at 13-6 overall last season and is 7-5 (2-0 GPAC) to begin 2022. The Mustangs blanked Mount Marty, 7-0, on March 18 in their GPAC opener.
The Bulldogs will take on Mount Marty (0-2) in Yankton, S.D., at 1 p.m. CT on Thursday. Concordia will attempt to duplicate last season’s 7-0 win over the Lancers.