Mobile, AL - UC matched up with the host University of Mobile in the opening round of the NAIA National Championship back in 2019 and ended pushing past the Rams in that affair. This time around, it was a similar result with Cumberlands coming up with the win to make it to the second round for the third time in as many tries as the Patriots grabbing the 4-1 victory Tuesday afternoon.
UC set the tone during doubles play where they ended up taking the first two bouts to claim the first point. Meiri Okuwaki and Tessa Gray continue to keep rolling along as the MSC Freshman of the Year and her partner won their 14th straight match with this one coming out of the #3 spot by a final of 6-2. They were followed by Fan Shiau and Satsuki Mitani at #2 who won their contest handedly as well, taking down Mobile's Sofija Hrovat and Alina Schweizer by a count of 6-3 to give the Patriots a 1-0 advantage.
Meiri picked up right where she left off when singles play began with her grabbing her second win of the afternoon as UC's #2. She had no trouble with her Ram counterpart with Okuwaki keeping her opponent to just two points or less in each stanza, winning 6-1, 6-2 to give UC a 2-0 lead. She was followed by the back-to-back MSC Player of the Year, Tomomi Nagao, who got a win of her own at the top spot. Nagao didn't have much trouble herself on her way to the win as she won the first set 6-4 before really settling in and taking the second canto 6-2 to move UC just one victory away from the win.
Mobile did not go down quietly as they tried to rally down three points with them grabbing a win at the #3 spot. But that one point was all they count muster as the Patriots closed things out to advance to the next round. Fan Shiau delivered the knockout blow as UC's #6 after falling behind. She ended up dropping the first set 6-1, but managed to flip the score to knot things up at one apiece. After finding her groove in the second stanza, Shiau was able to use what advantage she had found to dominate in the deciding third set as well, taking home the 6-2 win to close things out.
Hana Shimeno and Mikaela Fros both saw their singles matches go unfinished, but they did bare some positives for the both of them. Both Patriots were able to win at least one of their sets, helping them have some momentum to take into tomorrow's match.
Cumberlands proves to 23-5 on the season with them extending their win streak to a dozen while moving to 9-2 in neutral site matches. The Patriots are now set to face Montreat (N.C.) tomorrow in their second round matchup with things set to begin at 1:00 p.m. EST.
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