OMAHA, Nebraska – The No. 65-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team (14-7, 6-0 Summit) secured its 12^th consecutive Summit League regular season title after defeating Omaha, 5-2, on Saturday afternoon.
 
DU rallied after dropping the doubles point to take a 2-1 lead before UNO tied the scoreboard up again at 1-1. Within a span of about 15 minutes, Denver grabbed two of the remaining singles matches to clinch the dual at 4-2 and added one final win at No. 2 singles to close out the day.
 
With the win in what was Denver's final regular-season match as a member of the Summit League, DU finishes with a 6-0 league record on the year and a perfect 71-1 record all-time in league play since joining in 2013-14.
 
Doubles:
The contest for the doubles point came down to a tight battle at No. 3 doubles, though it started with a 6-4 win for Denver's No. 2 team of seniors Claudia Martinez de Velasco and Louise Wikander. The Pioneers broke in the opening game, which proved to be the critical game of the match. The duo would twice exchange breaks in consecutive games with UNO's Pearsall/Smith later on but held on for a 5-4 lead before successfully serving it out.
 
A moment later, UNO took the No. 1 match, 6-3, sending all eyes to the last match standing on court three. Omaha's Buckels/Shannon held a 4-1 lead before DU senior Zoe Adkins – in her first match against her former team – and sophomore Natálie Cinková broke back with the Mavericks serving for the match, getting back on serve at 4-5. Unfortunately, a tight service game from the Pioneers ended with another UNO break to win it, 6-4, and to take a 1-0 lead as a team.
 
Singles:
For the third dual in a row, Wikander collected DU's first singles point, using two 6-2 sets to do so this time around. After the match's first three games all saw breaks, Wikander took a multi-break lead for 4-1 and held twice more to take the first frame. The second set stayed on serve until Wikander broke in back-to-back return games to lead, 5-2, and then served it out in the eighth and final game.
 
Denver's second point of the day came from Adkins in straight sets, also losing only four games while face off against her former team. She made a statement early, breaking twice in three games and going ahead 5-1 where she broke yet again to take the first set, 6-1. UNO's Shelby Smith started the second set with a break, but Adkins got back level at 2-2. After trading breaks in the sixth and seventh games again, the Denver senior broke yet again, claiming a 5-3 advantage and going on to serve it out, 6-3.
 
UNO pulled things even overall after winning on the No. 3 court, but Martinez de Velasco retook a lead for Denver, losing only three games at No. 6 singles and putting DU within one point of the clinch. She broke a total of three times in the first set, taking a 4-0 lead before breaking in what would be the final game for 6-2. The second set followed a similar formula, seeing four total breaks, three of which went to Martinez de Velasco. The DU senior led 5-1 and then served it out in the next game.
 
Freshman Yunfei Cai clinched the dual for Denver for the sixth time this season, again in straight sets but having to do so after a battle in the first set that twice saw the players exchange breaks before the Pioneer went ahead 6-5 and served it out for a 7-5 lead. She kept momentum going with a break to begin the second set and stretched it to a two-break lead at 3-0 in what was the first of four consecutive breaks between the two players. With a 4-2 lead at that point, Cai held serve for a 5-3 advantage and broke once more to close it out.
 
Senior Marley Lambert grabbed DU's fifth and final point, also in a competitive match at No. 2 singles. Play began with three consecutive breaks, leaving Lambert with a 3-1 lead, though Omaha's Nina Wiese got back level at 3-3. Things remained on serve until they traded breaks once more, this time in the final two games and sending things to a tiebreak. At the changeover, Lambert held a minibreak lead and maintained the advantage until finishing it off a 7-4. With breaks in the second and fourth games of the second set, Lambert took a 4-0 lead. Wiese got one back for 4-1, but Lambert held in her next service game before breaking for a third time in the set to finish things off at 6-2.
 
Up Next:
The No. 65-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team has secured the top seed for the upcoming 2026 Summit League Women's Tennis Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and will play No. 4-seeded Oral Roberts in the semifinals on Friday, April 24, at 9 a.m. CT/8 a.m. MT.