GRAND FORKS, North Dakota – The No. 44-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team (16-4) clinched the 2023 Summit League regular-season title with its 6-1 win at North Dakota on Saturday.
 
Denver moved to 6-0 in league play to win its ninth-consecutive Summit League regular-season championship, doing so every year since joining the league in 2013-14. Including its 2013 WAC title, Denver has now won its conference regular-season title for a decade straight.
 
Doubles:
Denver began the day by securing the doubles point with wins in the No. 1 and No. 3 matches. Senior Britt Pursell and fifth-year student Taylor Melville moved to a team-best 6-3 on the season with their 6-2 win in No. 1 doubles. After dropping the No. 2 match, DU's No. 3 team of freshmen Louise Wikander and Caroline Driscoll used a 6-4 win to give the point to Denver.
 
Singles:
Wikander got things started for DU in singles, dropping just one game in each of her two sets to win in No. 4 singles – her sixth time losing two or fewer games this season.
 
Sophomore Andrea Burguete Beltran lost just one game more than Wikander, getting out to 4-1 leads in both sets before closing each out within two or three more games played.
 
UND got on the board with a win in No. 5 singles, but Denver would respond with wins on the remaining three courts. Freshman Claudia Martinez de Velasco broke twice in her first set at No. 6 singles before breaking in the fifth game of the second set and finishing it, 6-3, and securing the win for Denver overall.
 
Melville improved to 15-3 on the season at No. 1 singles with a comeback-victory after dropping the first set. In the second set, she broke early and added another to go up 5-1, where she served it out. The match would be resolved in a third-set match tiebreak, taking the final five points for a 10-2 win.
 
Pursell finished Denver's day with a straight-sets win at No. 3 singles. After a tight first set that ended with a tiebreak win, the senior finished with a dominant 6-2 win to give DU its sixth overall point in the dual.
 
Up Next:
The 2023 Summit League Women's Tennis Championship will be held April 21-22, hosted by Oral Roberts. DU has clinched the No. 1 seed for the tournament and will await the completion of the field following the final regular-season league matches on April 16.
 
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