Women's Tennis | 9/3/2016 9:07:00 PM

PICTURED: Jasmine Madrid (near), Juviel Vinluan (far)

Despite a pair of setbacks in Iowa to start the season, the Vikings' tennis team used the experience as motivation to continue improvement.

North Park fell 9-0 to Coe College to start the day Saturday then suffered an 8-1 loss to Cornell College in the nightcap. The Vikings only victory came at No. 2 doubles where the tandem of Vilde Olvin and Justine DeBosscher defeated their opponents 8-1.

"Playing tough competition in the opening matches of the season is hard, but it shows our players what they need to improve on to elevate their game," Vikings' head coach Karl Clifton-Soderstrom said. "I was proud of our ladies for fighting for every point and every game, during a long day of competition in the heat and sun.  Some of our players showed a lot of versatility, changing their style of play to adjust to their opponents and coming back stronger in the second sets from the first.  I think our doubles lineups showed a lot of strength that we can continue to build on in the coming weeks. "

With a storied history of strong programs, Coe lived up to its reputation early on but after some early first match nerves, the Vikings started to gain momentum.

"It was just too late to catch up to the competition at that point," Clifton-Soderstrom said. "But I was very proud of our no-quit attitude throughout."

Against Cornell, a spirited match at No. 1 doubles arose with Jasmine Madrid and Juviel Vinluan pushing their opponents to the brink, but they lost the match by an 8-3 decision.  

"It was a good, stern test to start the season," Clifton-Soderstrom said. "But now that we have our season opener jitters out of the way, we're ready to bounce back."

North Park returns to action Friday when it opens CCIW play with Millikin University at 3:30 p.m. in Decatur.