St. Cloud, Minn. – Believe it or not, but the Bethel University women's tennis squad hit the courts for the first match of the 2011-12 season last weekend with a dual against St. Cloud State University and the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The Royals could not muster a win in its first contest versus the Huskies, as SCSU handed BU an 8-1 defeat. Bethel did rebound, however, to deliver an 8-1 pounce on UMD.
In the first competition against the hosting Huskies Bethel was ousted in each doubles match. Both
Lisa Scheevel (Jr., St. Cloud, Minn.) and
Steph Brown (Jr., Lake City, Minn.), as well as
Kayla Wheeler (Jr., Oakdale, Minn.) and
Kristin Vivian (Fr., Green Bay, Wis.), fell 8-4 in their double match.
Shanna Burgmeier (Fr., Hastings, Minn.) and Abigail Kreklau (Fr., Maple Grove, Minn.) were able to manage the only win in the first showcase of the season with an 8-5 defeat over St. Cloud State's third doubles team. The victory was short lived though, as SCSU took down Bethel in each individual match.
Amanda Johnson (So., Vadnais Heights, Minn.) came the closest to achieving a victory, losing the first set 4-6, winning the second 6-3, and falling in the tie-breaker 6-10.
Kristin Vivian also took her match to the third set.
BU made a quick turnaround later in the day, when defeating the Bulldogs 8-1 in a 1 p.m. matinee. Similar to the first matchup of the day the duo of Brown and Scheevel defeated their opponents in the same way as Wheeler and Vivian defeated theirs, 8-5. Burgmeier and Kreklau also won, defeating the third doubles combo for UMD 8-6.
In the singles side of the competition, Scheevel fell to the Minnesota-Duluth No. 1 4-6, 1-6. Bethel quickly made up for the loss, as Brown defeated her opponent 6-4, 6-3 and Vivian routed the UMD No. 3 6-2,6-2. Wheeler had an intense first set, winning 7-5, only to finish the second 6-2. Johnson and Burgmeier won each of their matches handly to help the Royals achieve the 8-1 victory.
After the first weekend of play, Bethel is now 1-1 and will gear up for its upcoming match against Northwestern College (Orange City) in Orange City, Iowa. Head Coach Dan Morton noted, “We are off to a great start. Our second sets really displayed our patience and improvement throughout the entire day.
