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Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Monday, April 21, 2008

ROUNDUP: WSU women's tennis team wins NSIC tourney title

By Winona Daily News staff

MINNEAPOLIS — The Winona State University womens tennis team continued its dominance throughout the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference on Sunday.

WSU won its fourth consecutive conference tournament title and and its seventh in the last eight years as it outlasted Southwest Minnesota State 58-54 in the final standings. Upper Iowa was a close third with 53.

In doubles competition, the Warriors had two teams win and achieve all-conference honors.

The team of Kaycee Moore and Courtney Zinter won the No. 3 doubles 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Holly Peltier and Erica Richae won the No. 2 doubles 6-4, 6-3.

Freshman Heather Pierce won No.1 singles 6-2, 6-0 over Upper Iowa’s Jennifer Bradfield and freshman Amanda Asche won the No. 3 singles 6-2, 6-1 against Danielle Hildebrandt of Southwest Minnesota State. Both took home all-conference honors.

Pierce was also named NSIC freshman of the year.

Softball

NSIC

WSU 12, Bemidji State 0 (5)

WSU 9, Northern State 2

BISMARCK, N.D. — After an 0-3 start to its road trip, WSU has started to heat up.

“We’ve been on the road since Thursday,” Warriors coach Greg Jones said. “After starting the trip with three losses and to win the next four in a row, that is a big positive.”

In the first game against Bemidji State, WSU (27-12, 13-4) brought the bats. Terra Halron went 3-for-4, Molly Bjelland and Jenny Wilmes had two hits apiece and Laura Wright had a three-run home run.

On the mound for the Warriors was Stacey Struzynski. Struzynski went five innings, allowed two hits and struck out seven to pick up the win.

In the second game, WSU continued hitting. Jenny Wilmes and Callie Givens each had a home run. Halron went 2-for-4.

Kristen Fossell started the second game on the mound for the Warriors and allowed three hits, struck out six and walked one.

“It was a very good day,” Jones said. “We hit the ball hard the whole day. Even our outs were hit hard.”

MIAC

St. Benedict 5-10, SMU 1-5

ST. JOSEPH, Minn. — After having a pair of come-from-behind victories Saturday against St. Catherine, the Cardinals built early leads but couldn’t hold them against St. Benedict.

In the first game, SMU (12-16, 10-4) took a 1-0 lead on a Jenny Giannini RBI single in the top of the first inning.

In the second and third innings, St. Benedict (9-16, 5-9) got to SMU starter Sarah Fitzgerald and scored a combined five runs. Fitzgerald, who picked up two victories on Saturday, pitched only two innings and gave up four earned runs.

In the second game, the Cardinals built a 5-3 lead when Danielle Geske hit a three-run home run in the top of the third inning.

It went downhill for SMU after that. The Cardinals gave up a run in the fourth inning, two runs in the fifth and four runs in the sixth.

Cassie Otte went 2-for-4 to extend her hitting streak to 27 games and Giannini went 2-for-4 for SMU.

Women's golf

MSU Maverick Invitational

WASECA, Minn. — On the final day of the MSU Maverick Invitational at Waseca Lakeside Golf and Country Club, MSU-Mankato came back to win with a 663 while Winona State had to settle for third place by shooting a 697.

“The course was long and tough because it was really wet,” WSU coach Erika Vail said. “All in all, I feel we did OK but I hoped we could’ve done a little better.”

For the second day in a row, the medalist was Mankato’s Trisha Schill, who ended up shooting 159.

For Winona State, Megan Placko finished third with 168, Katie Schuller finished tied for 12th with 173 and Tara Christensen shot 176.