Story courtesy of Trinity Sports Information
Claremont, California - The 24th-ranked Tiger women's tennis team opened the NCAA Division III Championship tournament with a 5-1 first-round West Region victory over #33 University of Texas-Tyler at Claremont McKenna College on Friday.
Trinity (15-9) will take on fourth-ranked and host Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time Saturday in the second round. The winner advances to Sunday's third round at 2:00 p.m. At stake is a berth in the NCAA quarterfinals May 23 at Kalamazoo, Michigan. Third-ranked Pomona-Pitzer (CA) Colleges and #18 Lewis & Clark (OR) College meet in Saturday's other second-round matchup.
UT-Tyler (21-4) opened Friday's dual match by taking the third doubles, with Andrea De Leon and Blaire Porter coming up short. Liza Southwick and Marie Lutz evened the match at 1-1, with a win on the #1 line, as the duo improved to 8-4 on the season. Cheyenne Duncan and Caroline Kutach gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead by capturing #2 doubles.
"We came out of the chute like the favorite at the Kentucky Derby," said Head Coach Gretchen Rush. "We got ahead in all three doubles. Caroline Kutach and Cheyenne Duncan took a commanding lead in the doubles and singles, that set the tone for Trinity in the match."
Trinity needed to win three singles matches for the dual-match victory. Duncan continued the Tigers momentum by winning the #5 line, and also improved her singles mark to 10-7. Porter then won the sixth match, and De Leon supplied the clincher at #4 singles, while improving to 14-8.
"We came out knowing they were a good team, and we did a good job of focusing," said Duncan after the victory. "We knew we wanted to get on and off the courts, and we came out with our heads on straight."
The Tigers concluded their regular-season home schedule last month with a 7-2 win over UT-Tyler. Trinity competed in the 2015 NCAA Regional at Claremont, and defeated the Patriots in the first round. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was a second-round winner over the Tigers last season.
