Women's Tennis | 4/12/2015 10:55:00 PM

Complete Alverno Results
Complete UW-Stout Results

It didn't take long for newcomer Gabriella Nordstrom to find her groove for the North Park tennis team. In just a few short weeks with the squad, she's quickly making a name for herself.

Nordstrom made swift work of her opponents Sunday in Glendale, Wisconsin, pairing up with No. 1 singles player Lisa Daniels at No. 1 doubles to earn a pair of victories. Then she disposed of her competition at No. 2 singles in easy straight sets to lead the Vikings to a pair of wins over Alverno College (5-4) and the University of Wisconsin-Stout (7-2).

"She did tremendous," Vikings' head coach Karl Clifton-Soderstrom said. "In total combined games, she out-scored her opponents 40-11. I couldn't be more proud of her performance."

Nordstrom's efforts had a ripple effect on her teammates, especially that of Daniels who finished the day with a 4-1 record. After a tough match with Alverno's Asia Butler-Yeo where Daniels fell 1-6, 2-6 Daniels went on to rebound for an 8-4 triumph with Nordstrom against Butler-Yeo and Damanique Drake. To further her exceptional performance, Daniels then capped off the day with another straight-set win over UW-Stout's Kelsey Pederson 6-1, 6-0 and her tandem with Nordstrom led to an 8-0 sweep over Emma Pederson and Danielle Lutz at No. 1 doubles.

"Butler-Yeo was the Freshman of the Year in Alverno's conference (Northern Athletics Conference) so there was definitely some very strong competition between her and Daniels," Clifton-Soderstrom said. "It was good to see how well Lisa was able to bounce back in her other matches."

North Park fell behind against Alverno in the overall dual after losing the first two doubles matches, but the Vikings fought back with victories in singles from Garette Gessert (6-0, 6-2), Juviel Vinluan (6-1, 6-0) and Marlee McCabe (6-1, 7-5).

Against Stout, NP swept five of the six matches at singles with the closest match coming at No. 3 between Gessert and Jolene Ladewig. Gessert prevailed however, earning a 6-3, 11-9 (tiebreaker) decision after falling 4-6 in the first set. Gessert and Vinluan also paired to earn an 8-2 win over Stout's Jenna Welke and Kelsey Pederson at No. 2 doubles.

"We started off much more confident and strong in the afternoon than in the morning," Clifton-Soderstrom said. "It was our singles play that worked best and Daniels found her rhythm."

North Park resumes action when the Vikings host Robert Morris College at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Northeastern University.

"Our spring season is dedicated to technical improvements in each individual's strokes and game play along with more rigorous conditioning," Clifton-Soderstrom said.  "The team's hard work in practices really paid off where for an all-day double header, our whole team kept their focus and intensity throughout."