TCU Defeats Utah to Advance to MWC Women's Tennis Finals

Frogs collect 20th win of season

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April 25, 2008

FORT WORTH, Texas -

• 2008 MWC Tennis Championship Central

Top-seeded TCU won its 13th consecutive match and 20th of the season with a 4-0 shutout of No. 4 Utah on Friday to advance to the championship of the 2008 Mountain West Conference Women's Tennis Tournament. The Frogs will face No. 2 UNLV on Saturday in the finals.

The Frogs jumped out to the 1-0 lead after a tightly-contested doubles match. TCU's Nina Munch-Soegaard and Maria Babanova led off with an 8-3 victory over Leigh Walsh and Karine Bourdages at the No. 3 position, while Utah's Emily Kwok and Elizabeth Ferris evened the match with an 8-5 victory over the 16th-ranked TCU tandem of Macall Harkins and Anna Sydorska.

Trailing 7-4, TCU's freshmen duo of Idunn Hertzberg and Katariina Tuohimaa rallied, winning four consecutive games to force the tiebreaker, which they won 7-5 to clinch the point.

The Frogs turned it up a notch in singles play, claiming the first three matches in straight sets to seal the win.

Senior Kewa Nichols began the scoring with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Bourdages at the No. 5 position, while Hertzberg followed to put TCU up 3-0 with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Andrea Maughan.

Munch-Soegaard, ranked No. 61 nationally, downed No. 60 Ferris by a score of 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the match for TCU.

TCU will face No. 2 UNLV on Saturday at 10 a.m. CDT.

No. 1 TCU (20-4) def. No. 4 Utah (15-9), 4-0

SINGLES

1. 1. No. 61 Nina Munch-Soegaard (TCU) def. No. 60 Elizabeth Ferris (Utah) 6-4, 6-4
2. Macall Harkins (TCU) vs. Emily Kwok (Utah) 7-5, 4-3, unf.
3. Erin Monson (Utah) vs. No. 106 Anna Sydorska (TCU) 7-5, 4-5, unf.
4. Katariina Tuohimaa (TCU) vs. Leigh Walsh (Utah) 6-3, 3-2, unf.
5. Kewa Nichols (TCU) def. Karine Bourdages (Utah) 6-1, 6-2
6. Idunn Hertzberg (TCU) def. Andrea Maughan (Utah) 6-3, 6-2

Order of Finish: 5, 6, 1*

DOUBLES

1. Kwok/Ferris (Utah) def. No. 16 Harkins/Sydorska (TCU) 8-5
2. Hertzberg/Tuohimaa (TCU) def. Monson/Maughan (Utah) 9-8(5)
3. Munch-Soegaard/Babanova (TCU) def. Walsh/Bourdages (Utah) 8-3

Order of Finish: 3, 1, 2*

*Clinching point