DES MOINES, Iowa – The No. 52-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team (16-6, 6-0 Summit) began the 2024 Summit League tournament with a sweep of Oral Roberts, 4-0, in the semifinals on Friday morning.
 
In a rematch of the regular-season finale against ORU, Denver claimed the doubles point before running through singles play with three quick wins. DU has now secured its spot in the championship match where the Pioneers will seek their 10^th-straight Summit League title.
 
Doubles:
Denver's Nos. 2 and 3 doubles teams clinched the first point of the day, beginning with just one game surrendered by sophomores Caroline Driscoll and Louise Wikander in the No. 2 match. They broke in their first and third return games while holding all four of their games on serve, winning 6-1.
 
Fellow sophomores Claudia Martinez de Velasco and Alice Otis clinched the point with a 6-3 victory at No. 3 doubles. After dropping serve in the opening game, the duo responded by winning six of the next seven games to claim the win.
 
In the No. 1 match, graduate student Britt Pursell and junior Andrea Burguete Beltran were just points away from a win, though their match was abandoned at 5-3 with the doubles point clinched.
 
Singles:
In singles, DU quickly collected first sets on all six courts within just over a half hour played and clinched the victory after about an hour total.
 
Martinez de Velasco lost just one game at No. 6 singles – an improvement over her 6-1 6-1 win over ORU's Cassie Cervantes in the regular-season finale – to mark the sophomore's best singles win so far of her collegiate career. She broke Cervantes' serve the first two times she faced it before the ORU player held for the first and only time in her third try. From there, Martinez de Velasco held to close out the first set, 6-1, with her first of seven-straight games won.
 
Burguete Beltran matched Martinez de Velasco's first set with a 6-1 win in identical fashion to start play at No. 1 singles. ORU's Sasha Lebedeva held serve to open the second set before the players traded breaks in the third and fourth games. After giving up her serve to find herself at 2-2, Burguete Beltran won the next four games to claim the win and put Denver within one point of the final.
 
Driscoll clinched the dual for DU on court 3, winning the first set, 6-2, after exchanging breaks in the first two games. She held a break lead to start the second but ended up back on even terms at 2-2. Neither player held their next service game, though Driscoll eventually retook the lead with a break for 4-3 and then another break in what would be the final game.
 
Otis was just points away from finishing her No. 5 singles match when Driscoll clinched the win. The first set began on serve until she took 4-2 lead with the break being all she needed for a 6-3 win. She broke again in her first return game of the second set and had stretched the lead to 5-2 when the match was abandoned.
 
Wikander gave DU a second bagel set on the day to start her match at No. 4 singles as part of a nine-game win streak to begin the match. Oral Roberts' Reagan Miley got on the board with a break to get to 1-3 in the second and held in the following game before the dual was clinched.
 
At No. 2 singles, Pursell broke in consecutive return games midway through the first set and was able to eventually close out the set with a two-break lead at 6-2. ORU's Arina Sorokina took control early in the second set and was up 4-1 when Pursell began a comeback to get within one break at 3-4 when the match was abandoned.
 
Up Next:
The No. 1-seeded University of Denver women's tennis team will play No. 2 seed South Dakota in the Summit League Final on Saturday, April 20, at 10 a.m. CT/9 a.m. MT.
 
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