After an impressive 22-2 season, the No. 28 women’s tennis team earned the Sun Belt Conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA championships after defeating No. 51 three-time defending champions Florida International 4-3 in Monroe, La., on Sunday.
Denver finished third in the SBC championship last season after a 4-0 loss to South Alabama, followed by a 4-2 victory against Troy.
“We worked so hard last year to build such a great foundation for this year,” said Head Coach Amy Jensen. “We improved 10 spots in the national rankings and missed the NCAA?tourney by one spot. We lost 2 seniors, Sackmaster and Mechem, who gave this program so much spirit and set the tone as far as commitment goes. The younger girls have carried on that tradition this year and even taken it to another level. It has been a total team effort.”
Junior Mallory Voelker was named the championship MVP after going undefeated in singles play during the tournament.
“The most important thing is always the team, and we are so excited to win that as well, but to win the individual award was great too. I’m very happy to receive it,” Voelker said.
“It’s all just been a dream to all of us it’s been one of our biggest goals and to finally accomplish it is really amazing, we are all stoked,” said Voelker.
The Pioneers will enter the championships with a seven-match winning streak.
Denver defeated Middle Tennessee 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the SBC championship on Saturday morning, followed by a 4-1 victory against Louisiana-Lafayette later Saturday afternoon.
Saturday morning, the top-seeded Pioneers swept the quarterfinals as No. 53 Voelker and sophomore Julia Bauregger defeated Middle-Tennessee’s Stephanie Parkison and Marlene Chemin 8-3. Junior Annette Aksdal and freshman Bhavani Tirumurti secured the point with an 8-4 victory over the Blue Raiders’ Pooja Kommireddi and Shannon Hartmann.
“Even though we were the tops seeds, we felt more like the underdogs as we knew FIU were a tough and experienced team who were used to dominating?SBC’s in the last few years,” Jensen said. “They played very confidently but our girls were not rattled. They really trusted in themselves, in each other, and in their preparation.”
In singles play, Aksdal had a 6-1, 6-0 win over Middle-Tennessee’s Parkison making it 2-0. Junior Kyla Iwinski added another point in No. 5 with a 6-0, 6-1 win, and Voelker added the final point with a 6-1, 6-1 victory in No. 1 singles.
In the semifinals, the Pioneers won the doubles point and first for singles matches to claim a 4-1 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette.
In No. 2 doubles, sophomore Ute Schnoy and Iwinski won 8-3 and Voelker and Bauregger won 8-5 at No. 1.
Louisiana-Lafayette scored their lone point at No. 3 singles, but the Pioneers came back and won three consecutive singles at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 6, clenching the match.
Denver overcame an early 3-0 deficit in the championship on Sunday as Voelker won the No. 1 singles court 6-4, 6-4 over the Golden Panther’s Egle Petrauskaite.
The Pioneers gained momentum and continued to win as Bauregger and Ute Schnoy defeated FIU in the No. 3 and No. 4 courts.
“The final match was the most amazing turnaround I have ever seen in my?11 years of college tennis,” Jensen said. “We were points away from losing the match 4-0?and bit by bit, point by point, the momentum began to shift. Ute’s match was instrumental – she was down a set and 4-2 and seemed down and out -?but she kept digging and found an effective tactic and amazingly reeled off 10 games straight. We could all feel the spirit and the fight as we clawed our way back. The girls fed off each others energy as they have done all year.”
The championship was decided as Iwinski defeated Maria Dolores Pazo 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the final match of the tournament, No. 5 singles.
“One of our goals was to get to NCAA’s and now that we have an automatic bid there, that is just awesome,” Voelker said. “We’re going to work hard and we look forward to going out there in about two weeks and competing for NCAA’s.”
The Pioneers will take to the court again in the NCAA Championships May 10-12 in Tulsa, Okla., and they will find out their opponent when the selections are announced on April 29 at 1 p.m. MDT.
