Men’s Box Scores: Emporia | Washburn

Women’s Box Scores: Emporia | Northwest Missouri

 

April 26, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After opening up with a pair of wins against Emporia, both Truman tennis teams fell in semifinal action at the MIAA Tournament on Saturday. The Bulldog men lost 5-1 to Washburn, while the women dropped a 5-0 decision to Northwest Missouri.

 

Due to weather conditions and a change of venue in Kansas City for Sunday’s action, the third-place matches will not be played – leaving both teams to wait for word from the NCAA as to potential at-large berths in the upcoming national tournament.

 

The Bulldog men opened with a 5-3 win in first-round play against Emporia. The squad took a 2-1 lead through doubles play after winning the Nos. 1 and 2 contests before getting wins at No. 1 (Peter Bracha), No. 2 (Steven Hipkiss) and No. 5 (Colin Boswell) singles to secure the match.

 

However, the men (8-6) ran into a regionally-ranked Washburn Ichabod squad that took its own 2-1 early lead and wrapped up the match with wins at Nos. 2-4 singles.

 

On the women’s side, the Bulldogs picked up a 5-1 win against the ESU Lady Hornets, getting doubles wins at Nos. 2 and 3 before Courtney Walther (No. 2), Ellen Russell (No. 4) and Kelsey Kuykendall (No. 6) got the ’Dogs off the court with three quick singles wins.

 

Then, in a key regional matchup, the ’Dogs (16-5) allowed Northwest Missouri to sweep doubles play before bowing out through the first two completed singles matches.

 

Both squads will wait for the NCAA’s decision regarding at-large berths from the South Central region to find out if their seasons will continue next weekend in regional play. Neither team was in the required top-eight entering conference tournament play this weekend.