Women's tennis advances to RMAC semi before bowing out to Mesa

The UCCS women's tennis team advanced to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Semifinals before eventually ending its season with a loss to No 1 seeded Mesa State.

The No. 5 seeded Mountain Lions started off the morning by upsetting the fourth-seeded Fort Hays State Tigers 6-3.

Fort Hays State was a welcomed rematch match for a UCCS. The Mountain Lions dropped a 5-4 heartbreaker to the Tigers at home just one week ago. In the April 15 match, the Mountain Lions dug themselves a 3-0 hole after losing in doubles. April 22 was much different.

UCCS went up 2-1 after doubles thanks to tightly contested wins by Kim Barberi and Katie McPhail at No. 2, and Natascha Vander Molen and Nikki Duvall at No. 3.

UCCS put the match away with its solid singles play. McPhail and Vander Molen both came away with wins. The Mountain Lions also got great production from the bottom of their lineup, where Duvall and Backlin dominated their opponents at No. 5 and No. 6.

With the win UCCS advanced to play the top-seeded Mesa State Mavericks, who were coming off a first-round bye.

The Mountain Lions played well in doubles, but the Mavericks still managed to come away with all three matches. At No. 1, Mesa's Emily Hydrick and Morgan Sawyer topped Lauren Daniels and Jessika Kardell 9-7. The match of the day took place at No. 3

Krystal Smith and Miranda Kettle outlasted the Mountain Lions' combination of Vander Molen and Duvall, winning a tiebreaker 9-7, to prevail 9-8.

With the doubles sweep, the Mavericks needed to win just two of the six singles matches to close out the match. Mesa State found those wins at No. 2 and No. 4, thus knocking the Mountain Lions out of the playoffs.