FRIDLEY, Minn. – The Bethel University women's tennis team suffered an 8-1 setback on Saturday afternoon against the University of St. Thomas, snapping a seven-match winning streak for the Royals.

"We battled extremely well against a nationally-ranked team and gave them all they wanted.  I'm really proud of the effort the girls showed today," said head coach Drew Fernelius.

Despite losing the opening two matches of the day, the Royals gave the Tommies all they could handle in the doubles portion of play.  The Tommies won by a score of 8-5 and 8-4 in the No. 1 and No. 2 doubles matches, respectively, before Bethel got on the board with an 8-6 victory behind the team of Samantha Hindt and Maddy Simpson. Heading into singles play down 2-1, the Royals needed a big effort to stay in the match.

Bethel freshman Sydney Parkinson set the tone for the Royals with a hard-fought three-set loss to a regionally-ranked player in the No. 1 match. Parkinson came back from a 2-6, 0-2 deficit to force a third-set tiebreaker which the Tommies eventually won 11-9. Fellow teammates Jill Weinzettel and Abigail Anderson also pushed their matches to the brink from the No. 5 and 6 positions but ultimately could not come out with victories.

Despite suffering just their third loss of the season, the Royals remain in contention for a postseason berth and will look to bounce back against Macalester on Tuesday.  The match is scheduled to start at 5 p.m.