TULSA, Oklahoma – The No. 66-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team (16-7, 6-0 Summit) won the 2026 Summit League Women's Tennis Championship with a 4-0 sweep over North Dakota at Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday.
 
With the win, Denver secured its 12^th consecutive Summit League tournament crown in what was its final season as a member of the league. Denver will join the West Coast Conference on July 1, 2026.
 
DU never lost to a Summit League opponent since joining the league in 2013-14, finishing with a perfect 71-0 record in regular-season league matches and going 24-0 in the Summit League tournament.
 
Doubles:
A pair of 6-3 wins across the top two doubles courts gave Denver a 1-0 lead to begin the final. Seniors Claudia Martinez de Velasco and Louise Wikander earned the first win, helped by a five-game win streak to set them up at 5-2. One service hold later, and the duo had the win at the No. 2 spot for Denver.
 
Senior Marley Lambert and freshman Yunfei Cai clinched the point with their own 6-3 result, theirs coming at the No. 1 doubles position. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead and stretched it to 5-1, though North Dakota's Schulte/Li got one break back with the Pioneers' serving for the match. Cai/Lambert refocused and were able to come away with the win regardless just two games later.
 
In the No. 3 doubles match, senior Zoe Adkins and sophomore Natálie Cinková had just broken to get back on serve and were sitting at 3-4 when the match was left unfinished.
 
Singles:
Three straight-sets singles victories secured the trophy for DU, starting with a dominant 6-1 6-1 win for Martinez de Velasco at No. 6 singles – her best result of the entire 2025-26 season and her second win in as many completed matches with three or fewer games lost. Both Martinez de Velasco and UND's Emma Roberts held in their opening service games before the Pioneer senior ran away with the set off five consecutive games to finish it off. Martinez de Velasco stretched her game win streak to eight with three more in a row to start the second set, and she ended the match with another three-game win streak.
 
Adkins lost just one more game that Martinez de Velasco, grabbing a 6-1 6-1 win from the No. 4 slot to put Denver within a point of the title. Her first set saw her win two games for every one that North Dakota's Alva Norberg did with Adkins breaking in consecutive return games to close the first set. She won the second set's first four games and then added a third break on her way to seizing the match with a 6-1 set.
 
Wikander had the championship-clinching point for DU, just her second time clinching a dual for the Pioneers this season. She breezed through the first set by winning the first two and the last six games for a 6-1 lead, and she took an early break advantage in the second set. UND's Ethel Li got back on serve for 2-2 and began a second rally later in the set after Wikander took a 5-2 lead. The Denver senior persisted, though, and was able to hold on for a 6-1 win, sending the Pioneers into a celebration with the trophy in hand.
 
Two more DU players were within a couple of games of finishing their matches but left them abandoned after Wikander clinched the title. Lambert broke in her first and last return games of the first set for a 6-3 lead and broke again to start the second set, where she held a 4-2 lead when the match was abandoned.
 
Cinková was up a break twice in the first set but was forced into a tiebreak, which she was able to win to lead by a set at No. 3 singles. She had won the first four games of the second set for a 4-0 lead when her match, too, was left unfinished.
 
Cai, too, had won her first set in a tiebreak but did so after fighting back from a break down and holding her own break lead late, though UND's Alyssa Giupponi stayed alive to force the breaker. The two players were just one game into the second set – won by Cai – when the dual had been clinched.
 
Up Next:
The No. 66-ranked University of Denver women's tennis team has secured an automatic berth into the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship by winning the Summit League title. DU will await its official selection into the draw during the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, April 27, at 2:30 p.m. MT.