Box Score John Carroll was not haunted by memories of a close loss last year in its first NCAA Championship appearance.
The more appropriate term would be galvanized.
Leaving no doubt, the Blue Streaks rolled to three doubles wins, then had its top two singles players close the match out as JCU defeated Concordia-Wisconsin, 5-0, Thursday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship held at the Wangerin Courts in Whitewater, Wisconsin.
Seven of the eight players who took the court for John Carroll on the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus today were holdovers from the 2016 squad that lost to Methodist, 5-4, in the first round last year. The experience paid dividends as the Blue Streaks got out to early leads and never looked back.
Lauren O'Malley and
Madisyn Rini burst out of the gates and won by an 8-2 score at #1 doubles over Ashley Solberg and Elizabeth Carroll.
Much of the same took place at #3 doubles, where Carlye Campagna and
Jennifer Stroyne used an early break to gain momentum on their way to an 8-3 win over Michaela Wagner and Sabine Jacobsen.
The #2 match stayed on serve the longest as the first five games went back and forth. But the sisters tandem of
Nicolette Bourlas and
Natalie Bourlas broke serve in the seventh games, and rolled from there. In taking the final six games, the Bourlas duo won by an 8-3 score over Bailey Kelly and Hannah Tresedder.
Needing just two more points in singles to close out the first round battle, JCU was seemingly in a good position. Concordia-Wisconsin, however, captured the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament on Sunday with a 5-3 victory over Edgewood in which the Falcons trailed 3-0 after doubles.
The Blue Streaks did not need to worry about a comeback on this day, as O'Malley and Rini were on point. O'malley cruised to a 6-1 6-1 win over Solberg on the #1 court, while Rini ended the match moments later in #2 singles with a decisive 6-0 6-1 triumph over Bailey Kelly.
Nicolette Bourlas was up 6-1 3-0 at #3 singles and
Molly Traverso had a 6-2 1-0 lead at #6 singles when the match ended.
In winning its tenth consecutive match, John Carroll advances to the second round of the NCAA postseason for the first time in school history, and will face 11th ranked Washington University (MO) on Friday, May 12, at 2:30 p.m. (CDT). The Bears, who received an at-large bid to the 2017 NCAA Division III Championship, are making their 18th overall NCAA Championship appearance and 10th in a row.
Although JCU has not played Washington, they saw a number of the same teams. JCU faced #11 Carnegie Mellon (L, 1-8), Principia (W, 9-0), #9 Chicago (L, 1-8), and Coe (W, 8-1) and went 2-2. Washington faced #11 Carnegie Mellon (W, 5-4; L, 3-6), Principia (W, 9-0), #9 Chicago (L, 1-5; L, 2-5: L 4-5) and Coe (W, 8-1) and went 3-4.
