Doubles teams sweep, but team falls to Lumberjacks

The Northern Colorado women's tennis team fought a close battle with conference rival Northern Arizona but could not come out on top, falling to the Lumberjacks 5-2 on Saturday.

The Bears (1-3, 1-1 Big Sky) started off on top, sweeping all three doubles matches giving them a 1-0 lead going into singles.

The number one doubles team of Stephanie Catlin and Elizabeth Tapia defeated Nicole Perez and Malia Wahinepio 8-5.

It was followed by two close matches at number two and three with junior Adriana Nieto and senior Jennifer Whateley beating Hannah Stone and Johanna Vang 8-7 (10-8). Freshman Chrissy Hoolahan and sophomore Jennifer Buchanan defeated Alice Pacault and Ghizalene Doballah 8-6 in their second win of the season at number three.

"I am proud of our overall performance today," said Head Coach Brenda Vlasak. "The team stepped it up a notch today and really performed well in doubles."

The only win for the Bears in singles came from Hoolahan at the number six position defeating Pacaut 7-5, 4-6, 11-9.

All of the singles saw close matches as three of the matches went to a third set. Whateley at number one fought a hard battle with Doballah with a close 6-1, 5-7, 6-3 decision and at number three Nieto battled with Wahinepio but fell 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

"NAU has historically been at the top of the conference and today our team proved that we can compete with anyone we step foot on the court with," said Vlasak.

The Bears return to conference action at 1 p.m. on Saturday, February 18 against Idaho State at Work Out West.