Maverick tennis sees more lows than highs

Minnesota State closed out their home schedule with a pair of victories this weekend.

The Mavericks started the weekend series off with a 5-4 victory over the St. Cloud State Huskies in St. Peter. Minnesota State started off by claiming two of the three double-matches to take a 2-1 lead early on. Senior Melissa Mashburn and sophomore Erin Streeter won the No. 1 doubles match with a final score of 8-2. Junior Killian Doran and freshman Kelly Spileman claimed the No. 3 doubles match with an 8-3 victory.

The team went on to claim three of the six singles matches to get them to the 5-4 victory. Streeter won with straight sets in the No. 1 singles match while senior Kelly Lechowski won 2-6, 6-1, 1-0 [10.7] in the No. 2 singles match. Senior Abby Schmidt claimed the victory in the No. 6 singles match finishing 6-3, 6-4.

The Mavericks finished the weekend off with a 7-2 victory over Minnesota Duluth. They began the day by winning all three of the doubles matches to take an early 3-0 lead. Streeter and Mashburn started the day off with a 9-6 [8-6] victory in the No. 1 doubles match while Lechowski and Ryan beat Drew DeCorsey and Megan Anderson 8-6 in the No. 2 match. Doran and Spielman finished the doubles off with an 8-2 victory.

The singles matches gave the Mavericks an additional four victories. Lechowski and Mashburn won both of their singles matches in straight sets. Streeter earned a win with a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 [10-4] final score in the No. 1 singles match before Lisa Dobbelaere won 7-6 [8-6], 6-3 in the No. 6 singles match.

With the wins, the Mavericks improve to 7-10 on the season and 5-4 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

The Mavericks started conference play with four losses, starting with a 9-0 loss to Augustana February 11. February 12 the Mavericks won 9-0 over Sioux Falls. The following week, the team headed to Winona where they lost 5-4 to Winona State and 5-4 and 7-2 against Upper Iowa. In their last two games before their Spring Break trip, the Mavericks lost 5-4 to MSU-Moorhead before picking up a 7-2 win over the University of Mary.

The team returned from their spring break trip in Orlando with two wins and four losses. The team started the trip off strong with an 8-1 win over Findlay and a 7-2 win over University of the Science in Philadelphia. Day two of the tournament resulted in a 7-2 loss to Saginaw Valley State before losing 7-2 on day three to Wheaton College. The Mavericks finished off the tournament with a pair of 8-1 losses to Grand Valley State and Tampa.

The Mavericks’ first games back resulted in a 7-2 loss to Gustavus Adolphus and a 9-0 win over Southwest Minnesota State on March 18.

Minnesota State tennis will head to Crookston this weekend to take on the Bemidji State Beavers at 3 p.m. Saturday and the Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles at 8 a.m. Sunday.