ELMHURST, Ill. -- Continuing an undefeated run to its 2024 season, the North Park Women's Tennis team secured at least a share of their first-ever College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) title on Monday afternoon with an emphatic win at Elmhurst University. The Vikings remain the only undefeated team in CCIW play and have a chance to win the outright title at North Central on October 15.
North Park was perfect in doubles play, not dropping a single set to the Bluejays. #1 Katja Carlberg and Alexandra Ristfeldt, #2 Hanna Zethraeus and Emilia Sand, and #3 Maddie Starr and Alexandra Pugachova all won handily to start North Park off the best way they could. Pugachova/Starr and Zethraeus/Sand are both a perfect 5-0 in doubles play this season.
The Vikings only dropped four of 72 points in the match. #2 Ristfeldt, #4 Starr, and #6 Ella Darrow all won 6-0, 6-0. The win for Darrow was the first for her against CCIW competition. #1 Zethraeus beat the Bluejays' top player 6-0, 6-1, #3 Katja Carlberg won in the same fashion 6-0, 6-1, and #5 Thea Gifvars won her match 6-0, 6-2 for her second conference win.
Starr moves her singles record to 8-0 on the season while Ristfeldt and Pugachova also stay perfect in singles play with respective records of 6-0 and 5-0.
"This team continues to push themselves to get better from match to match, and support each other from day to day," said Head Coach Karl Soderstrom. "Following the win against Augustana, they felt confident going into today's match. Still they remained laser focused on playing their best tennis and never let up. It felt great to secure at least a shared conference season championship. Teams like Wheaton and North Central have set the bar high the last few years, and we are excited to go head-to-head with both programs... but the work is not done yet. We are in a good place to compete in the next week against two strong programs - Grinnell College, a top 20 program and defending champions of the Midwest Conference, and the final match against North Central, defending CCIW Champions. We have never been in a better position to finish the season strong."
What's Next?
North Park (8-0, 7-0 CCIW) has one more home match this fall season, a non-conference pairing against Grinnell this coming Saturday, October 12. First serve at River Park will be 9:00 AM.
