Williamsburg, KY - The Patriots put a wrap on their regular season the way they wanted to as they were able to break out the brooms against MSC foe Georgetown. UC felt right at home on the road against the Tigers as Cumberlands grabbed sweep number five in a row to improve to 19-5 on the year by a final tally of 7-0.
Tomomi Nagao and Johanna Beckmann won their fifth consecutive doubles match to kick things off and set the tone for the Patriots. They had no trouble playing as UC's top tandem with the dynamic duo winning 6-0 as Tomomi moved to 16-8 in doubles while Beckmann now holds a record of 17-6 when playing tandem. Meiri Okuwaki and Tessa Gray ended up locking in the first win of the day for Cumberlands at #2 with their own dominating win. Like so many times before, Tessa and Meiri were able to take care of business as UC's #2 with them winning in this one 6-1. Satsuki Mitani and Fan Shiau finished things off to grab the sweep in doubles, winning 7-6 (14-12) in a close match at the #3 spot.
Johanna Beckmann kept things rolling going into singles at #3 for the Patriots with her grabbing her seventh straight win going solo by a final count of 6-1, 6-4 to make it a 2-0 lead for Cumberlands. UC extended their lead out even further with Meiri Okuwaki's matching coming to a conclusion at the #2 spot win a win. Okuwaki had to fight her way to a win in the first set by a score of 7-6 (8-6) before taking over for a 6-0 victory in the second, making it a 3-0 advantage for the Patriots.
UC secured their eighth straight win of the season with a victory at #4 with Hana Shimeno taking care of her Tiger counterpart. After winning the first set 6-2, Shimeno fell in the second 6-1 to force a decisive third canto. As she did in the first set, Hana took over in the third to claim the win and give Cumberlands a 4-0 lead. The back half of UC's lineup didn't let up after securing the win with Fan Shiau winning out at the #5 spot 6-2, 6-2 while Satsuki Mitani won at #6 6-1, 6-0. Mitani has come on strong of late in singles as the Patriot's #6 with five straight wins with them all coming in convincing fashion. After exclusively playing doubles for most of the season, Satsuki has competed in singles in the five of the last six matches with four of her wins coming with her giving up only one point.
Tomomi Nagao ended up finishing out the match to complete UC's 16th sweep of the season at #1. Nagao had a tough time with her assignment in Georgetown's Maci Ferguson as the two battled back in forth with neither able to grab an advantage more than two points throughout. The two ended up being involved in some long rallies that ended up playing to Tomomi's advantage as her opponent began to tire, leading to a 7-6, 7-5 win for Nagao, giving her win #20 on the year in singles play and making it a 7-0 final.
UC improves to 19-5 on the season overall with a 9-1 mark in conference play, good enough for second in the MSC while winning each of their last eight contests. The Patriots will start their postseason run next week as they are set to compete in the Mid-South Conference Tournament. Cumberlands will travel to Bowling Green, KY for the tournament with the first round set to get underway on Thursday, April 21st, while the championship match will take place Sunday.
For the latest information on University of the Cumberlands Athletics please visit www.cumberlandspatriots.com. Follow us on Twitter- @UC_Patriots and @UCPatsGameday, Instagram- @UCPatriots, Youtube- Cumberlands Patriots, and Facebook by searching University of the Cumberlands Athletics.
