#3 Pt. Loma Squeezes Past #6 Brenau

Mobile, AL- Brenau's hopes of a National Championship came to an end today when they lost in an extremely close encounter to the #3 seed Point Loma Nazarene, CA. The Tigers lost all three doubles. The top two doubles could have gone either way with Brenau having plenty of chances to clinch the matches. The number 1 team of Choo and Mazackova lost 9-7, having had break points at 7-7. The number 2 team of Wong and Orlova did not play quite aggressively enough at the vital stages of the match and went down 9-8 (7-3) in a tiebreaker. Thompson and Nagels at number 3, fought hard, saving many match points before losing 8-4.

In the singles competition, trailing 3-0 Brenau came out fighting and Wong quickly won at the #3 spot to pull a point back for the Tigers. Lyn See Choo was battling at #1 in a big hitting contest but lost 6-3,6-3 giving the Point Loma team a 4-1 edge. Thompson, Orlova and Nagels were all leading in their matches and Kate Mazackova, although a set down, was making a recovery. It looked like it would all come down to the Mazackova match when Eline Nagels suffered a hamstring injury which restricted her movement considerably and let her opponent back into the match. Eline gamely battled on but it proved to much to overcome and she lost 7-6, 6-3 to give Point Loma the vital 5th point.

Coach Leslie, while disappointed, was proud of his team accomplishments this season. He commented ' The doubles could have gone either way, it hinged on a couple of key strokes that did not go our way. I think it would have helped to have been able to play a full match with Northwood the day before instead of just two doubles. This meant we spent almost 4 days at the tournament with no matches. An early round match would have assisted in calming nerves and getting used to the feel of the Championships. However we make no excuses, we had our chances and failed to capitalize on them"

Singles:
No. 1 - Kristin Strimple (PLNU) def. Lyn See Choo (BU), 6-3, 6-3
No. 2 - Ashley Litchfield (PLNU) vs. Katerina Mazackova (BU), 6-2, 5-4, DNF
No. 3 - Jolene Wong (BU) def. Rachel Owens (PLNU), 6-2, 6-2
No. 4 - Jessica Kwan (PLNU) vs. Hannah Thompson (BU), 6-3, 0-6, DNF
No. 5 - Kiersten Steinhauer (PLNU) vs. Liubov Orlova (BU), 7-6, 2-2, DNF
No. 6 - Wileen Chiu (PLNU) def. Eline Nagels (BU), 7-6 (4), 6-3

Doubles:
No. 1 - Kristin Strimple / Ashley Litchfield (PLNU) def. Lyn See Choo / Katerina Mazackova (BU), 9-7
No. 2 - Rachel Owens / Jessica Kwan (PLNU) def. Jolene Wong / Liubov Orlova (BU), 9-8 (3)
No. 3 - Kiersten Steinhauer / Wileen Chiu (PLNU) def. Eline Nagels / Hanna Thompson (BU), 8-4