Air Force sweeps women's tennis to start spring

The Northern Colorado women's tennis team started off their spring schedule with a tough loss to in-state rival Air Force, 7-0.

The number one doubles pairing of sophomores Stephanie Catlin and Elizabeth Tapia went on to win their match 8-5 over Hannah Dake and Anastasia Hueffner.

Head Coach Brenda Vlasak was impressed with the pair, "Our number one doubles really showed up today and played aggressive, while not playing defense."

Even with the quick start the Bears were unable to take either of the other doubles matches going down 8-5 and 8-2 in the number two and three matches, respectively.

Northern Colorado was only able to win one set in singles action. That set was won by junior Jennifer Buchanan at number three singles (6-4, 2-6, 4-6).

"We purposely schedule tough matches at the beginning of the season to let the girls see what level we need to be at and aim for an even higher level when we reach conference matches," said Vlasak. "Today was a bit of an eye opener and the team realizes just how important it is for every single person to show up to compete and to compete hard. The overall score is not indicative of the actual matches, the matches were very close and could have gone either way. Everyone needs to work on buckling down, staying focused and work on closing out our games, sets and matches."

The Bears will be able to put this loss behind them quickly as they head up to Laramie, Wyoming tomorrow to take on the University of Wyoming Cowgirls.