WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University of Minnesota men's and women's tennis teams kicked off their 2016 seasons in impressive fashion Friday evening.
And they made it look easy.
The Cardinal women cruised to a 9-0 nonconference win over Bethany Lutheran at the Winona Tennis Center—dropping just six games in sweeping the singles matches and four games in running through the three doubles.
The Saint Mary's men, meanwhile, also collected a 9-0 nonconference victory over the Vikings, but needed a pair of three-set wins in singles to complete the season-opening sweep.
Laura Sonday (West St. Paul, Minn.), Megan Vandenberg (DePere, Wis.), Julia Boeve (St. James, Minn.) and Haley Jorgensen (Fallon, Nev.) all collected 6-0, 6-0 wins in singles for the Saint Mary's women, while Kirsten Hoffmann (Apple Valley, Minn.) won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2 and Sheyenne Bauer was a 6-1, 6-1 winner at No. 6.
Sonday and Hoffman teamed for an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles, with Jorgenson-Ashley Syed posted an 8-1 win at No. 2 and Sommer Lardy (Richmond, Minn.)-Marissa Kinzer (Aitkin, Minn.) adding an 8-0 victory at No. 3.
For the Cardinal men,
Brenden Amiotte (Rapid City, S.D.),
Warren Lawrenz (Rochester, Minn.),
Blake Olmscheid (Farmington, Minn.), and
Alex Zuzek (Hastings, Minn.) collected straight-set singles wins, with
Collin Kaczorowski (Suamico, Wis.) and
Garen Merritt (Sioux City, Iowa) both dropping the second set before rallying to win the third in posting three-set victories at No. 1 and No. 5 singles, respectively.
Kaczorowski-Olmscheid were 8-1 winners at No. 1 doubles, with Lawrenz-
Alex Holm (Red Wing, Minn.) adding an 8-4 win at No. 2 and Amiotte-
Brett Giesen (Cato, Wis.) cruising to an 8-0 triumph at No. 3.
The Cardinal men (1-0 overall) are right back in action on Saturday, hosting Carleton in a noon Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match at the Winona Tennis Center. The Saint Mary's women (1-0 overall) are off until Sunday, when they host Carleton in the teams' MIAC opener at 11 a.m., also at the Winona Tennis Center.
