April 21, 2008

Lincoln, NE (UWIRE) -- The Cornhusker women's tennis team finished up its regular season Sunday after splitting duals, with a 4-3 loss at Kansas and a 6-1 home win over Kansas State.

Overall, Nebraska finished the spring season with a 16-6 mark and a 5-6 conference record before heading to the Big 12 Conference Championships later this week.

The No. 67 Huskers started Friday's dual in Lawrence, Kan., by losing the doubles point for the third consecutive match, despite mixing up the doubles pairs. At No.1 doubles, NU senior Imke Reimers and freshman Jana Albers dropped their match, 8-4. The new pair of freshmen Stephanie Evans and junior Maria Ring at No. 2 doubles lost in a 9-8 (5) tiebreaker. The new No. 3 doubles team of freshman Amber Chandronnait and sophomore Wiveca Swarting lost 8-6.

"We changed (our doubles lineup) because we haven't been successful with our lineup for a period of time," said NU Coach Scott Jacobson. "We played well with the change, and (we'll) see if we stick with it."

The Huskers split the singles with the Jayhawks right down the middle, with the top three Nebraska players winning and the bottom three losing. Reimers went three sets to win at No. 1 singles 1-6, 6-4, 6-2. At No. 2, Swarting prevailed 6-4, 6-2. NU's Jana Albers won 7-6 (8), 6-3 at No. 3 singles. Evans lost 6-4, 6-3 at No. 4 singles. At No. 5, Chandronnait fell 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Ring lost by a score of 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-1 at No. 6 singles.

Sunday's home match with Kansas State started out with Nebraska losing the doubles point again. Albers and Reimers, in her final home match, swept 8-0 at No. 1 doubles in an impressive 35 minutes. Evans and Ring lost 9-8 (6) at No. 2 doubles after Evans had an overhead bounce sideways off the tape. At No. 3 doubles, Chandronnait and Swarting dropped an 8-4 match.

"It's a good start for every team to get one point in the bag from doubles." Ring said. "It's still not that big of a deal because four other matches can still be won."

The Huskers won more than the necessary four for the dual win by taking all six singles matches. Reimers won her No. 1 singles match 6-4, 6-0 after dropping the first four games in the initial set.

"I started well and ended well." Reimers said. "I just lost it a little in between, but it's kind of a great feeling to go out this way."

In other action, Swarting won the most exciting match of the day 5-7, 6-4 (10-8) by running off four of the last five points after falling behind 4-0 in the super tiebreaker at No. 2 singles. Albers won a 6-3, 6-0 match at No. 3 singles, Evans won a 6-4, 6-1 match at No. 4 singles, and Chandronnait turned a 1-1 tie into a 5-1 lead in the first set and won the final four games in a 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 5 singles.

At No. 6 singles, junior Ashley Finnegan proved why she's nicknamed "Bulldog" after fighting back from a 5-1 deficit in the first set to win 14 of the final 16 games in a 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory.

"The passion was evident, and you could see that the kids brought their hearts today," Jacobson said. "Their minds were all on Imke and all she gave to our program. I'm really proud of their efforts."

(C) 2008 Daily Nebraskan via UWIRE