St. Cloud State Tennis Set to Face Augustana in NSIC Tournament

Friday, April 26

Sioux Falls, S.D.

2:00 P.M.

St. Cloud State

Augustana

Photo by: Isaac Bentrott

St. Cloud State Tennis Set to Face Augustana in NSIC Tournament

4/24/2024 11:46:00 AM | Women's Tennis

Huskies look for first tournament win in seven years

St. Cloud, Minn.-Eighth-seeded St. Cloud State Tennis (4-10, 2-7 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) is set to face off against Augustana (15-4, 9-0 NSIC) in the first round of the NSIC Tournament on Friday, April 26. The match will be played at the Huether Family Match Pointe Facility in Sioux Falls, S.D. and is scheduled for 2:00 P.M.

Follow the Huskies
The match will be streamed live for free on the Huether Family Match Point website (Watch Live — Huether Family Match Pointe — Sioux Falls, SD (playthepointe.com) and can be found on the tennis schedule page.

The Bracket
The winner of St. Cloud State and Augustana will advance to the semifinals of the NSIC Tournament and face the winner of Sioux Falls and Minnesota Crookston on April 27. To see the full bracket and all of the information regarding the 2024 NSIC Women's Tennis tournament, click the following link: https://northernsun.org/tournaments/?id=110&path=wten.

Last Time Out
St. Cloud State closed out their regular season this past weekend with a pair of matches against UMary and MSU Moorhead.

Saturday's match against UMary saw the Huskies fall into a 1-0 hole after getting swept in doubles play. Singles play for the Huskies followed a similar result with losses in five of the six matches. Sophomore Oriana Grott (Warsaw, Poland) took the first set 6-1 in her matchup with Ilona Freitag in the No. 3 position, but Freitag responded with a 7-5 victory in the second set and then ultimately defeated Grott 10-5 in the third set. Freshman Brooklyn Broadwell (Thief River Falls, Minn.) followed a similar path to Grott where she took the first set 6-3 against Maria Estinvil in the No. 4 spot but went on to lose the next two sets 6-3 and 10-5. Senior Mamiko Yamaguchi (Tokyo, Japan) captured her first career victory with a 7(8)-6(6), 6-3 victory in the No. 6 position against Luba Moyo. Yamaguchi gave the Huskies their only victory of the day as St. Cloud State was defeated 6-1 by the Marauders.

Results UMary 6, St. Cloud State 1
Doubles

Chloe Chong & Ilona Freitag (UMARY) def. Maria Paz Aoki & Claudia Muñoz Perez (SCSU): 6-1
Hala Awad & Maria Estinvil (UMARY) def. Oriana Grott & Brooklyn Broadwell (SCSU): 6-2
Emily Needham & Luba Moyo (UMARY) def. Mamiko Yamaguchi & Maria Molitor (SCSU): 6-4

Singles

Chloe Chong (UMARY) def. Claudia Muñoz Perez (SCSU): 5-0, R
Hala Awad (UMARY) def. Maria Paz Aoki (SCSU): 6-1, 6-0
Ilona Freitag (UMARY) def. Oriana Grott (SCSU): 1-6, 7-5, 10-5
Maria Estinvil (UMARY) def. Brooklyn Broadwell (SCSU): 4-6, 6-3, 10-5
Emily Needham (UMARY) def. Maria Molitor (SCSU): 6-3, 6-1
Mamiko Yamaguchi (SCSU) def. Luba Moyo (UMARY): 7(8)-6(6), 6-3

Sunday's match against MSU Moorhead presented an opportunity for the Huskies to improve on their position in the NSIC standings. SCSU found themselves in another 1-0 hole after being defeated in two of the three doubles matches. Grott and Broadwell picked up their third win as a duo after defeating Madison Bell and Tiannah Gu 6-4 in the No. 2 spot. Yamaguchi and senior Maria Molitor (Delano, Minn.) suffered a narrow defeat as a 7(8)-6(7) victory by Katryna Hansen and Claire Nemmers clinched the doubles point for the Dragons. Moving into singles play, Broadwell tied the match at 1-1 with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Katryna Hansen in the No. 4 spot, securing her sixth singles victory of the season. The Dragons took the matches in the No. 3 and No. 5 spots in straight sets to take a 3-1 lead. Junior Claudia Muñoz Perez (Tarragona, Spain) set the score at 3-2 with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Luzmary Diaz in the No. 1 position for her eighth singles victory of the season. Junior Maria Paz Aoki (Marcos Paz, Argentina) battled in the No. 2 position against Shaelyn Johnson, but was defeated 6-3, 3-6, 1-6 as the Dragons clinched the victory in the match. Yamaguchi picked up her second victory of the season as she defeated Claire Nemmers 7-5, 6-3 in the No. 6 spot, but St. Cloud State was ultimately defeated 4-3 to close out their regular season.

Results MSU Moorhead 4, St. Cloud State 3
Doubles

Luzmary Diaz & Shaelyn Johnson (MSUM) def. Claudia Muñoz Perez & Maria Paz Aoki (SCSU): 6-2
Oriana Grott & Brooklyn Broadwell (SCSU) def. Madison Bell & Tiannah Gu (MSUM): 6-4
Katryna Hansen & Claire Nemmers (MSUM) def. Mamiko Yamaguchi & Maria Molitor (SCSU): 7(8)-6(7)

Singles

Claudia Muñoz Perez (SCSU) def. Luzmary Diaz (MSUM): 6-4, 7-5
Shaelyn Johnson (MSUM) def. Maria Paz Aoki (SCSU): 3-6, 6-3, 6-1
Tiannah Gu (MSUM) def. Oriana Grott (SCSU): 6-4, 6-2
Brooklyn Broadwell (SCSU) def. Katryna Hansen (MSUM): 6-3, 6-1
Madison Bell (MSUM) def. Maria Molitor (SCSU): 6-2, 6-1
Mamiko Yamaguchi (SCSU) def. Claire Nemmers (MSUM): 7-5, 6-3

Postseason Prowess
Finishing as the eighth seed in the NSIC standings, St. Cloud State qualified for the NSIC Tournament for the third consecutive season after a five-year hiatus. In the NSIC Tournament, the Huskies hold a 10-9 overall record, a 6-5 record in the quarterfinals, a 2-4 record in the semifinals, and a 2-0 record in the finals. The Huskies have hit a dry spell in their postseason success with their last win in the tournament coming in 2017 and having lost six of their last seven tournament matches.

Series History
Friday's match against Augustana will be the 46^th all-time meeting between the teams with the Huskies holding a 27-18 advantage. Despite the advantage, the Huskies have dropped 16 consecutive matches to the Vikings including their matchup this season. During the 16-match losing streak, St. Cloud State has been outscored 110-7 and have not recorded a point against the Vikings in their past five matches.

The Vikings jumped out to a fast start, taking a 1-0 lead after doubles. Augustana swept the Huskies with all three of their doubles winning coming by 3+ points. The Vikings continued to steamroll the Huskies by winning all six singles matches, five of which in straight sets. Muñoz Perez put up a fight against Florentia Hadjigeorgiou in the No. 1 spot, but was ultimately defeated 5-7, 6-3, 10-5 as the Augustana defeated St. Cloud State 7-0.

Results Augustana 7, St. Cloud State 0
Doubles

Florentia Hadjigeorgiou & Aleksandra Kistanova (AU) def. Maria Paz Aoki & Johana Brower (SCSU): 6-3
Gabriela Jancikova & Simone Karaouza (AU) def. Claudia Muñoz Perez & Brooklyn Broadwell (SCSU): 6-2
Senem Ocal & Smilte Baktye (AU) def. Mamiko Yamaguchi & Maria Molitor (SCSU): 6-0

Singles

Florentia Hadjigeorgiou (AU) def. Claudia Muñoz Perez (SCSU): 5-7, 6-3, 10-5
Senem Ocal (AU) def. Maria Paz Aoki (SCSU): 6-1, 6-1
Mia Garcia (AU) def. Johana Brower (SCSU): 6-1, 6-3
Aleksandra Kistanova (AU) def. Oriana Grott (SCSU): 6-4, 6-2
Gabriela Jancikova (AU) def. Brooklyn Broadwell (SCSU): 6-1, 6-1
Margarita Chouliara (AU) def. Maria Molitor (SCSU): 6-0, 6-0

Friday's match will also be the fourth meeting between the teams in the NSIC Tournament with Augustana holding a 2-1 advantage. In their most recent meeting in 2022, the Vikings defeated the Huskies 4-0 to advance to the semifinals of the NSIC Tournament. St. Cloud State has not beaten Augustana since the 2010 season where they defeated the Vikings 5-2 to win their second consecutive NSIC Tournament Championship.

Scouting Augustana
The Vikings come into this postseason match as the No. 32 team in Division II and hold an overall record of 15-4 and a perfect 9-0 record in conference play. Augustana secured its 14^th straight NSIC regular season championship two weeks ago and is the number one seed in the tournament. The Vikings have won 160 straight NSIC matches and hold a 167-3 record since joining the conference. Augie has captured 12 consecutive NSIC Tournament championships and has won their last 34 tournament matches.

In singles play, the Vikings hold an overall record of 85-21 with a perfect 53-0 in conference play. All six of the regular starters for Augustana have produced double digit victories with Senem Ocal leading the way with 15 wins. Aleksandra Kistanova and Gabriela Jancikova have both won 13 matches this season.

The Vikings have been just as dominant in doubles play as they have in singles play with a 41-12 overall record and a 24-2 conference record. All three doubles pairings have won 12+ matches for the Vikings with the Florentia Hadjigeorgiou and Kistanova pairing and the Smilte Bakyte and Ocal pairing both winning 13 matches.

Marc Kurtz enters his 16th season as the head coach of Augustana. During his tenure, Kurtz has guided the Vikings to a 307-59 record and has led them to 12 consecutive NSIC Tournament Championships. Under Kurtz, Augustana has finished first in the conference for 13 consecutive seasons and has only lost more than four matches six times under his lead.

Century Mark
After playing in two matches against Augustana, Claudia Muñoz Perez became the 65th Husky to play in 100 career matches. Muñoz Perez has won 50 total matches in her tenure with the Huskies with 32 coming in singles and 18 in doubles. Her .650 winning percentage in singles play ranks just outside the top 20 on the all-time singles winning percentage in program history.

After playing in two matches against UMary, Maria Paz Aoki became the 66th Husky to play in 100 career matches. Paz Aoki has captured 34 victories in her career with 21 coming in doubles play.

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Tennis, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the Huskies on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.