UMD Women’s Tennis Eyes NSIC Tournament

The University of Minnesota Duluth Women’s tennis team had its most successful season in 4 years. With success comes new opportunity. That is what the team has here in competing in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament, something they have not been able to do the previous three years.

“I cannot even begin to explain how proud I am of this team,” senior captain Drew DeCorsey said. “We exceeded our goals (this year). Everyone on the team has pushed each other to be better, practice better, and play better. We are a stronger team this year than we have been in years past, and that gives us a lot of confidence going into each match.”

The regular season ended last Friday and now the team turns their sights towards the conference tournament. The team went 9-12 overall but boasted an impressive 6-5 record in conference play.

“Our conference record is definitely something that we want to build off of going into the tournament,” DeCorsey said. “We beat a lot of teams this year that we have not beaten in years.”

UMD will take on No. 1 seed Augustana in the first round, but the Bulldogs have every right to go into that match with confidence.  

“We won the most matches against them this season in our whole conference, so we are still confident going in that we can give them a run for their money,” DeCorsey said.

For the team, this will be their final tournament of the year. For DeCorsey, these will be the final matches of her collegiate career.

“The last three years I have been in the program we have narrowly missed it, so I am definitely seizing the last few days coming up,” DeCorsey said. “Every practice, team dinner, and match is going to mean a lot more to me, as they have this whole season. I need to go out there and literally put everything on the line.”

The NSIC tournament will be held this weekend, April 22-23 at Lifetime Fitness in Minnetonka, MN.

Photo courtesy of Dave Harwig