Mobile, AL – The 11
th-seed UC women's tennis team battled sixth-ranked Southeastern in the second round of the NAIA Tournament and despite
Meiri Okuwaki notching a singles win, the Patriots fell 4-1 Wednesday morning at the Mobile Tennis Center. Cumberlands closes out the season with a 21-3 record.
The Fire jumped out in doubles with wins at #3 and #2 doubles to take an early 1-0 lead.
Cumberlands tied the match at 1-1 as Okuwaki blanked Martina Picardi, who is ranked 23
rd in the ITA singles rankings, 6-0, 6-0 at #1 singles. The sophomore closes out the season with a 21-1 record and on an 18-match win streak.
Southeastern responded with a pair of straight sets wins at #5 and #6 singles to take a 3-1 advantage. At #2 singles,
Laura Prieto battled in the first set to force a tiebreaker, which she won 6-3 to win the set 7-6. Prieto continued to put up a strong effort, however, Micah Sypert won the next two sets 6-2, 6-0 to win the point and clinch the match.
Fan Shaiu won he first set 6-3 at #4 singles, before dropping the second set 1-6. In the third set, Shaiu and Simone Simas traded points until the match was even at 6-6. Simas was leading the tiebreaker 2-1 when play was halted.
Cumberlands notched 20+ wins in a season for the third consecutive season, while they captured their second MSC regular season title in the last three years. The Patriots close out the season with an 82.9% win percentage in singles.
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