MOBILE-The Auburn Montgomery women's tennis team defeated Concordia University (Calif.) 5-0 in the semifinal round of the Women's NAIA Tennis National Championship. The win puts AUM back into a familiar position, the national tournament finals.
AUM (21-2) won all three doubles to begin the match and put Concordia (20-4) away with singles victories from Whitney Byrd at four singles and Nathalie Sienkob at five singles.
The appearance in the finals for AUM will be the 11th consecutive appearance in the championship match, and the 18th overall. The Lady Senators have appeared in all of its 18 championship finals since the 1991 season. The 1995 and 1996 seasons were the only two seasons during the run AUM had not made an appearance in the final match.
The Lady Senators own a NAIA-record 10 national titles with the last six of those being consecutive. The Lady Senators will also face a familiar opponent in the finals, Fresno Pacific University (Calif.). This will be the fifth consecutive season the two teams will meet for the title, with AUM winning the previous four meetings.
Fresno Pacific (27-1) defeated Point Loma Nazarene University 5-1 to earn another title shot against the Lady Senators. Tomorrow's championship match will begin at 10 a.m. at the Mobile Tennis Center.
Auburn Montgomery (Ala.) def. Concordia (Calif.), 5-0
Singles:
No. 1 - Ana Veselinovic (AUM) vs. Jennifer Sher (CU), 4-6, 0-1, DNF
No. 2 - Parija Maloo (AUM) vs. Bettina Radke (CU), 6-3, 1-2, DNF
No. 3 - Morgane Zowczak (AUM) vs. Jordan Kimura (CU), 6-2, 1-2, DNF
No. 4 - Whitney Byrd (AUM) def. Johanna Sceresini (CU), 6-2, 6-1
No. 5 - Nathalie Sienkob (AUM) def. Kristin Yep (CU), 6-0, 6-1
No. 6 - Kveta Hajkova (AUM) vs. Cristina Paiva Flor (CU), 6-0, 5-0, DNF
Doubles:
No. 1 - Ana Veselinovic / Morgane Zowczak (AUM) def. Jennifer Sher / Bettina Radke (CU), 8-2
No. 2 - Nathalie Sienkob / Kveta Hajkova (AUM) def. Kristin Yep / Jordan Kimura (CU), 8-5
No. 3 - Parija Maloo / Whitney Byrd (AUM) def. Johanna Sceresini / Cristina Paiva Flor (CU), 8-2
-AUM-
