UNI Moves to 5-4 With Sweep of Nebraska-Omaha

Saturday, February 15

Waterloo, Iowa (Black Hawk Tennis Club)

3:00 p.m.

University of Northern Iowa

Nebraska-Omaha

UNI Moves to 5-4 With Sweep of Nebraska-Omaha

2/15/2014 1:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: UNI Athletics Communications

WATERLOO, Iowa - The University of Northern Iowa women's tennis team improved its home record to 5-0 with a 7-0 sweep of Nebraska-Omaha at the Black Hawk Tennis Club on Saturday.

"Today we certainly came out a bit slow but also credit Nebraska-Omaha because they are a very disciplined and hard nosed team," UNI head coach Daniel Finn said. "UNO was not going away. With that said, I'm very happy with the way our ladies handled themselves and fought through some adversity and found a way to win on all courts when we did quite have our A-game. When you play so well the night before it's always dangerous to go right back out and play the next day without a letdown. But anytime you can shut out your opponents on back-to-back nights you have to be happy. The ladies have really been working hard in practice and buying into the coaching system and the results are starting to show."

One of the meet highlights came at No. 1 singles where UNI's Erica Medlin avenged a fall season loss to Alex Tran with a three-set victory on Saturday. Medlin scored a 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (10-7) victory. Medlin rallied from a 6-1 deficit in the 10-point super tiebreaker by winning nine of the final 10 points for the victory.

UNI (5-4 overall) will travel to Lincoln, Neb., to take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. UNI will then then stay in Lincoln and take on the Air Force Academy Falcons on Sunday at 11 a.m.

NOTES:

LANKELMA MOVES UP THE VICTORY CHARTS

UNI senior Krissy Lankelma added two more doubles wins this week to up her career doubles record to 76-41. Lankelma is now one doubles win away from tying for No. 4 on the Panthers' all-time doubles victory chart with Meghana Paritala (2004-08) and Jessica Kunzelmann (2008-12). Phoebe Walker holds the UNI doubles wins record with 83 from 2009-13.

Lankelma posted a pair of wins in singles over UMKC and Nebraska to up her career record to 67-52. Lankelma's 67 career wins ranks as the 9th-best career total in UNI history. Her wins this weekend pushed Lankelma past Mariana Muraca (65 wins - 2003-07) and Taynara Moraes (66 wins - 2005-09)

PERFECT AT HOME

UNI has posted a perfect 5-0 mark in his five home duals this season. UNI's last 5-0 start at home came in the 2008-09 season when the Panthers won their first eight home matches at the Black Hawk Tennis Club.

FOUR STRAIGHT VICTORIES

UNI has won four consecutive matches for the first time since the 2011-12 season. UNI has scored consecutive wins over North Dakota (5-2), Western Illinois (7-0), UMKC (7-0) and Nebraska-Omaha (7-0). The last time UNI won four straight matches the Panthers tallied wins over Milwaukee (4-3), Green Bay (7-0), Tennessee-Martin (6-1) and Murray State (7-0) from March 2-March 13, 2012. The last time UNI won five consecutive matches came in the 2010-11 season when the Panthers rolled up six straight victories in the MVC portion of the schedule from April 3-April 23, 2011.