SEWARD, Neb. – For the second time in three days, the Concordia University Women’s Tennis team has claimed a GPAC victory. The Bulldogs pulled out the tight matches they needed towards the back half of the lineup while defeating Northwestern, 5-2, in Seward on a sunny Saturday (April 2). The likes of Tessa Blough, Sofia Morales and Megan Hakes each won both their doubles and singles matches.
Head Coach Cam Long’s squad is hoping to get on a run now in conference play. Concordia moved to 2-1 within the GPAC (4-7 overall) with a win also coming over Mount Marty two days earlier.
“Going into it, I could tell how hard we’ve worked. We’ve been getting better all season,” Long said. “I told the team it was only a matter of time before we started coming out on top in some of these close matches. Today we did that. We won two of the three three-set matches in singles and we won both tiebreakers in doubles. It comes down to mental toughness in the big moments.”
The doubles point could have easily gone the other way on Saturday if not for the Bulldogs emerging victorious in tiebreakers at both Nos. 2 and 3 doubles – by respective scores of 7-6 (7-5) and 7-6 (7-1). The winning doubles combos for Concordia included Morales and Blough at No. 1 (6-3), Tara Ferrel and Hakes at No. 2 and Brooke Hosick and Julia Phillips at No. 3.
Morales continues on a path towards establishing herself as one of the GPAC’s top players. Morales pushed her conference singles mark to 3-0 while topping Julia Kurtz, 6-4, 6-1. When Morales’ match went final, the team score rested at 3-2 in favor of the Bulldogs. Next in line, Hakes clinched the team victory when she won the tiebreaker in the third set, taking it, 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5). The two additional singles winners for Concordia were Blough at No. 2 (6-3, 6-0) and Kylie Freudenburg at No. 6, 6-4, 4-6, 15-13. It took 15 points in a 10-point tiebreaker for Freudenburg to finally put away Emma Montenegro.
“I think today especially was a great confidence-booster,” Freudenburg said. “This is a match we needed to win and I think we’re going to keep that momentum going against Saint Mary … It just came down to consistency and keeping the ball in play. I tried not to just hit winners and keep it in play. My mindset was, ‘I can win this match.’”
Northwestern (3-8, 0-2 GPAC) also dropped a 6-1 decision at Midland on Friday. The Red Raiders have lost four in a row since their 8-1 win at Simpson College (Iowa) on March 18.
Conference action will continue next week as the Bulldogs will host College of Saint Mary (4-3, 0-1 GPAC) at 5 p.m. CT on Tuesday. In last season’s matchup in Omaha, Concordia eked out a 4-3 decision over the Flames. In its 2022 GPAC opener, CSM fell by a 6-1 score at Doane on March 26.