MADISON, Wis. (April 6, 2024) – After beginning the day with a 5-4 win over No. 25 Grinnell College in the semifinals of the prestigious Midwest Invitational, the No. 28 Denison University women's tennis team fell 9-0 against No. 7 nationally-ranked Washington University in St. Louis in the championship match. It was Denison's first appearance in the championship match at the Midwest Invitational since 2011.
In this year's Midwest Invitational, six out of the seven teams in the field were ranked in the most recent ITA national rankings.
In its first-ever match against Grinnell, Denison led 2-1 as the two teams started with singles action first. Down 1-0 after
Dasha Chistyakova fell 6-3, 6-1 against Ionna Giannakou, the No. 44 nationally-ranked singles player, at No. 2 singles,
Maia Nowicki won 6-4, 6-3 win over Erin Jarvis at No. 6 singles and
Caroline Lopez won 7-5, 6-2 over Paige Sargent at No. 4 singles.
Grinnell's Lily Perrin defeated
Caroline Kittle 6-2, 6-4 at No. 3 singles to tie the match at 2-2 before
Peyton Oda took down Irene Agusti, the No. 16-ranked singles player in the country, by a score 7-5, 6-3 at No. 1 singles to put the Big Red back in front.
Kendall Schrader came up short in both a first-set tiebreaker and a third-set super tiebreaker at No. 5 singles, falling 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 1-0 (10-8) against Utsah Karla to tie the match at 3-3 heading into doubles.
Fortunately, Denison was very strong at each of the top-two doubles spots as Chistyakova and Nowicki defeated Giannakou and Perrin 8-2 in the top spot while Schrader and Lopez won 8-3 over Agusti and Jarvis, clinching the win at No. 2 doubles.
The action against WashU in the championship match again started with singles, but Denison was unable to get a win. Nowicki fell 6-2, 6-0 against Karen Gao in the first match to finish at No. 4 singles, and winning the most points for the Big Red in singles was Kittle with a 6-3, 6-1 defeat at No. 2 singles against Eleanor Archer, the No. 19-ranked singles player in the Central Region. The closest result for Denison in doubles was an 8-3 defeat for Chistyakova and
Anna Leach against Ainsley Heidbreder and Nina Moravek in the No. 3 position.
With its nine-match winning streak snapped in the Championship match, Denison moves to 11-6 on the season and will return to action with a rematch at Washington University in St. Louis at 2 p.m. Central Time on Friday, April 12.
