Box Score | Photo Gallery | Video of Final Point

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – For the first time in the short four year program's history, the Davenport Women's Tennis team will be making a trip to the NAIA National Tournament thanks to a 5-1 win over Ashford University (Iowa) on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers, now 20-9 on the season, move on to the national tourney held from May 14-18 in Mobile, Ala. after their win in the Unaffiliated Regional Tournament.

After clawing out a 5-4 win over rival Northwestern Ohio late Friday evening, the Panthers faced another stiff challenge on Saturday as No. 24 Ashford University stood in their way of their first ever trip to nationals. The No. 24 ranked Saints had defeated Davenport earlier this season to earn the top seed in the region but it was all DU on Saturday.

On a beautiful sunny day at Orchard Hills, Davenport too full control of the match with a 2-1 edge after doubles. Emily Spiech and Alyssa Fuentes won 8-2 at the top and the Panthers also got an 8-5 win from Marcie Kooyers and Angelica Woods at No. 2. The Saints grabbed the final point in doubles winning 8-2 at No. 3

Turning to singles, DU needed only three wins out of the six matches to clinch the overall title and they got off to a flying start as Alyssa Fuentes dominated at No. 2 winning 6-0, 6-1. The remaining five matches were tightly contested and DU got their second singles win from Angelica Woods 6-3, 6-1 at No. 5. Ashford kept the excitement going and had a 1-0 set lead in three other matches and forced a third set at No. 3.

Emily Spiech, who had lost one of those first sets, rallied back to force a third with a thrilling 7-6 (7-2) tiebreaker win but the overall focus turned to No. 3 singles where Kristi Kuzdal won the first set 6-0, dropped the second 0-6 and was playing very well in the third when she finished the overall match with a 6-2 win to give DU that critical fifth point.

The other three matches were stopped at that point as the Panthers had won their first ever berth into the NAIA National Tournament.

Davenport will find out its opening round opponent on Tuesday, May 7 and full information can be found on the DU Athletic website.

Post-Match Quotes – Head coach Patrick Grashorn
“Amazing day for DU tennis. The girls played really well in doubles and for Marcie and Angelica to get the win and put us up 2-1 was huge for morale. We've trailed so often after doubles that being up really helped the confidence level heading into singles. Besides Alyssa who dominated, all the matches were extremely close. There were times when all of the other 5 girls were down and times when they were all up and a lot of in between. It was so great to see the fight of our girls. Even though Emily wasn't able to finish, the fact that she came back and won the second set was noted by everyone and boosted the mood which at the time was low. When all said and done after Kristi won the 5th point, all of our girls were poised to win their matches. So proud of them.”
 
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