WHEATON, Ill. -- The North Park Women's Tennis team continues to reach new heights and raise the bar with seemingly every match. The Vikings kept this ongoing pattern by securing their first ever regular season win over Wheaton College, 5-2, on Saturday morning.
Doubles play, which is normally the Vikings' strong suit, found themselves down 0-3 at #1 (Alexandra Ristfeldt and Katja Carlberg) and #2 (Emilia Sand and Hanna Zethraeus), while the #3 slot of Maddie Starr and Alexandra Pugachova were also in a tight contest.
Sand and Zethraeus roared back after being down 4-1, bringing it back to a 6-6 match. The duo stayed just ahead of their opposition, securing the win with a 7-5 tiebreaker. North Park lost at #1 doubles but #3, despite a close contest, led the whole way to win two of three doubles matches.
Singles play started strong for NPU, going up early in almost all of the matchups. However, this time Wheaton came from behind to force a string of close matches.
North Park secured wins from #6 Starr (6-1, 6-2), continuing her dominant season, as well as #2 Ristfeldt (6-1, 7-6), #4 Emilia Sand (7-6, 3-6, 6-3), and #5 Alexandra Pugachova (3-6, 6-2, 6-0). Sand had a grueling match that just beat the Saturday heat, winning in three sets. Ristfeldt was in top form, playing one of the strongest matches of her season with precise, deep-hitting groundstrokes aided by quality approach shots. Pugachova, who had not dropped a set all year, lost the first set before switching to a more aggressive strategy, bringing home wins in set two and three.
What's Next?
North Park (5-0, 4-0 CCIW) returns to its home court on Wednesday, September 25, for a match against Carthage College. First serve at River Park Courts is set for 3:00 PM.
