University of Denver
Louisiana Monroe
Denver Advances After Epic Win
4/22/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
Denver won the first doubles match with an 8-3 win on the No. 1 court by Sophia Bergner (Schechen, Germany) and Steffi Rath (Hochst, Austria) over Medy Blankvoozt and Letha Gaigher. ULM then struck back with two consecutive doubles victories and won the point. The pair of Claire Clark and Monica Winkel defeated Elena Najera (San Diego, Calif.) and Emma Isberg (Tyreso, Sweden) 8-6 on the No. 2 court and the duo of Ana Burjaili and Vivian Polak defeated Caroline Schnell (Greenwood Village, Colo.) and Natalie Dunn (Fort Collins, Colo.) 8-5 on the No. 3 court.
In singles play, Rath evened the match with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Polak on the No. 5 court.
ULM then countered with two consecutive singles points as Blankvoozt defeated Isberg 6-4, 6-3 on the No. 3 court and Gaigher defeated Dunn 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 on the No. 6 court.
Down 1-3, Denver extended the match and pulled even with a No. 4 court win by Schnell over Burjaili 6-2, 6-4 and a No. 1 court win by Bergner 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4 over Clark.
With the match knotted at three apiece all eyes turned to the No. 2 court. DU's Najera proved up to the task in defeating Winkel 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 in a three hour and fifty-six minute back-and-forth duel.
Denver (9-13) advances to face No. 3 seed Louisiana-Lafayette in Saturday's championship semifinals. Match time is 9 a.m. (CT) at the Mobile Tennis Center.
