ORLANDO, Fla. – The Calvin University women's tennis team battled to a 5-4 defeat against a strong Concordia University Wisconsin (CUW) team on Thursday at the USTA national campus.
 
Calvin (7-1) fell behind early in the match as CUW (14-2) took two of the three doubles contests. The lone win for the Knights came in number-three doubles with a 8-7 (7-1) tiebreaker win by the team of Tessa Holman (Washington, Mich./Romeo) and Elise Norman (Battle Creek, Mich./Lakeview).
 
The Falcons took home wins in both number-one (8-4) and number-two (8-6) doubles to secure the early lead.
 
The depth of the Knights showed well in singles play as Calvin took each of the numbers 4-6 matches in straight sets. Maggie Shoemaker (Holland, Mich./Holland Christian) (6-0, 6-2), Averi Lewis (Tualatin, Ore./Tualatin) (6-2, 6-0) and Delanie Minnema (East Grand Rapids, Mich./Northpointe) (6-3, 6-0) each scored wins for Calvin.
 
The Falcons took each of the top three singles match ups, however, including a third-set tiebreaker in number-three singles where the CUW's Ashley Samuta topped Catherine Grissom (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central) 6-2, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8).
 
COACH'S COMMENT: "Our women really battled against a very strong Concordia team that won their conference and qualified for the NCAA tournament," Calvin head tennis coach John Ross said. "We're looking forward to our match up tomorrow against a good Carthage team to finish our trip."
 
NEXT UP: Calvin tennis returns to action tomorrow (Friday, March 8) when it closes its spring break trip in Orlando with a match against Carthage at 3:00 PM.