ACU's Awesome Women's Tennis Season Comes To A Close In NCAA Semifinals

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Abilene Christian women's tennis season reached its conclusion in the semifinals of the 2012 NCAA Championships Friday morning after falling 5-0 to a top-ranked and undefeated side from BYU-Hawai'i at the Top Gun Tennis Academy.

The Seasiders improved to 29-0 with the victory and Saturday will go after their eighth national title against six-time champion Armstrong Atlantic, which today beat 2011 winner Barry, 5-1. These three schools have combined to win every national title since 2002. 

As for three-time national semifinalist Wildcats, their fine campaign ended at 26-4, which included a No. 6 national ranking, conference and regional titles, and seven victories against DI schools. ACU also posted a 19-1 record against DII opposition, and along the way defeated nationally ranked squads from Cal State Los Angeles, Cameron, Indiana (Pa.), Lynn, Midwestern State, Rollins, St. Edward's,Tarleton State, and UC San Diego.

But BYU-Hawai'i today proved to be an entirely different kind of beast as the Seasider lineup swept the Wildcats in doubles for the first time all season in jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Sophomore Madelyn Walker and freshman Brittney Reed gave the team of Marika Kobayashi and Tanja Rebholz a battle at No. 3 doubles before ultimately falling, 8-6, but ACU's top two tandems of Micah Hermsdorf and Hannah Kelley, and Laura and Julia Mongin, were overmatched by the Seasiders' No. 1 and fifth ranked duos.

"The match was much closer than the final score would indicate, but we stumbled out of the gate and they're just too good of a team to come back against especially down 3-0," said head coach Hutton Jones who last brought his women's team this far in 2009. "We had the fast start yesterday (vs. Lynn), but today it was their turn, and we couldn't turn it around fast enough. I feel today we lost to the soon-to-be national champions."

The loss for the Mongin sisters was their first of the year through 13 matches, while Hermsdorf and Kelley fell to 18-4. Hermsdorf and Kelley, who together won a South Central Regional title in the fall and placed third at the USTA/ITA Small College Championships, began the spring ranked 21st in the nation and climbed all the way up to 10th entering the postseason.

The Seasiders' singles lineup, which includes three of the top-eight players in DII, continued to be aggressive by winning five of six first sets. Laura Mongin was the lone exception as she topped Tanja Rebholz at No. 4, 6-2, and was leading 3-2 in the second set when the match was halted.

Other matches stopped included a top-line battle between DII's No. 1 and 2 players Annie Hwang and Julia Mongin. Hwang won the first set, 6-1, but was locked in a 4-4 tie in the second set.

At No. 2 singles, 36th-ranked Hermsdorf was up 4-3 on No. 4 Sherry Liu in the second set after losing the first, 2-6.

BYU-Hawai'i earned its fourth point at No. 6 singles where Marietta Tuionetoa defeated Emily Conrad, 6-3, 6-1, and then the clincher came soon afterward at No. 3 where Reed lost to No. 8 Yuan Jia, 6-3, 6-2.

Reed's defeat snapped a seven-match winning streak and was her first all year against a DII opponent. Reed, however, still finished with the team lead in victories with 24 followed by Hermsdorf with 22, Laura Mongin and Conrad with 21, Kelley with 19 and Julia Mongin with 17. Additionally, not one player or position finished with more than four losses.

ACU, which prior to today, had defeated all other DII schools by either shutout or an 8-1 margin, registered a combined singles record this spring of 137-18 (.884) as well as a 72-17 mark in doubles (.809). 

"We looked comfortable in singles one the matches got rolling with some of them very winnable for us," Jones said. "I believe we're a national championship program in the making and everyone is excited about coming back here next year."

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