DENVER – The University of Denver women's tennis team (11-9, 6-0 Summit) secured its spot in the Summit League championship match with a 4-0 sweep of North Dakota in the tournament semifinals at Denver Tennis Park on Friday.
 
No. 1 seed Denver and No. 4 seed North Dakota met for the second consecutive match after ending the regular season with a 5-2 DU win at UND on April 12.
 
Doubles:
DU lost just three combined games in the two completed doubles matches on its way to winning the day's first point. Junior Hana Becirovic Novak and freshman Natalie Cinkova moved DU halfway to the doubles point, winning the final six games after the teams both held in their opening service games.
 
Juniors Claudia Martinez de Velasco and Louise Wikander clinched the point on court two, trading breaks a couple times before opening up a 5-2 lead and holding serve in the eighth and final game.
 
At No. 1 doubles, senior Andrea Burguete Beltran and junior Marley Lambert were on serve at 4-3 but did not finish play.
 
Singles:
Denver secured the victory with just two, three and five games lost, respectively, in the three singles matches to reach a conclusion. Cinkova kicked things off with two 6-1 sets at No. 6 singles to finish in under an hour on court. In both sets, the players held in their first service games before the DU freshman went on five-game win streaks to close it out.
 
Burguete Beltran lost just one game more than Cinkova, posting a 6-1 6-2 win in the top singles match. Like Cinkova, she finished the first set with five consecutive games won and then took a 3-1 lead to begin the second set. Two breaks later, she had the match in hand to give Denver a 3-0 overall lead.
 
For the second time in the dual, Wikander had the clinching result for the Pioneers. A three-game win streak midway through the opening frame set her up for an eventual 6-2 lead. After surrendering her serve at deuce to start the second set, she rallied to go up a break at 4-2 and held match points at deuce in the next two games before going on to serve it out in the ninth and final game.
 
Lambert was also one point away from winning her match at No. 4 singles. With a bagel in the first set, she had two match points at 5-4 but couldn't convert either, leaving things at 5-5 and unfinished in the second set.
 
Becirovic Novak was just two games away from victory, claiming the first set, 6-2, and was knotted up at 4-4 in the second when Wikander clinched the DU win. In the final unfinished singles match, Martinez de Velasco was in the middle of a fight back from a set down, holding a 3-2 lead in the second.
 
Up Next:
The University of Denver women's tennis team will await the result of Friday's second semifinal between No. 2 seed Oral Roberts and No. 3 Omaha, scheduled for a 6 p.m. MT start. The winner of that match will play No. 1 seed DU in the Summit League final on Saturday, April 19, at 1 p.m. MT.
 
Denver's Home for College Sports
Visit DenverPioneers.com for complete coverage of all 18 of DU's NCAA Division I sports
Like Denver Pioneers and Denver Women's Tennis on Facebook
Follow @DU_Pioneers and @DU_WTennis on Twitter
Follow @DenverPioneers and @DU_WTennis on Instagram