Juniors Kate Lowder and Victoria Sargent won the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Central Regional tennis title and advance to the ITA Small College National Championship October 15-18 in Mobile, Alabama. The duo becomes the first women’s team at MSC to advance to the national championship.
Lowder and Sargent, seeded number one in the field of 27 teams, defeated Neb.-Kearney’s Nickola Messbarger and Mizuki Takahashi 8-4 in the finals. Following a first round bye, the duo won three rounds including an 8-6 win over Upper Iowa’s Mallery Cox and Anastasia Dabiza, the number four seeded team. Dabiza went on to win the singles title and will also advance to the national tournament as the central region singles representative.
The Mavs opponents, Messbarger and Takahashi defeated MSC’s number two doubles team, Kelleen and Kaitlan Sera in the quarterfinal round, 8-4.
Lowder and Sargent were both eliminated in the round of 16 in singles play. Sophomore Kelleen Sera advanced to the singles semifinal, falling to eventual winner, Dabiza, in three sets (6-4, 2-6, 10-6).
ITA Final Results