Sept. 28, 2013

Results

WATERLOO, Iowa - The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee women's tennis team remains in contention for three flight championships after the second day of the Northern Iowa Invitational.

Dana Shannon will play for the title of the Gold Flight Sunday morning, while teammates Kristin Kurer and Christina Colarossi are slated to face each other in the final of the Campanile Flight. Plus, Kurer and Colarossi are set to team up in the finals of the Panther Doubles Flight.

In all, UWM went 9-4 in Saturday's action, and nearly added more wins to its total. Hayley Marshall and Alysa Straub just missed out on a doubles win over Saint Louis while Aerielle Pendleton fell in a third-set tiebreaker to Emma Waites of Iowa State.

"Going 9-4 today was good, even though 10-3 would've felt a lot better," Milwaukee head coach Greg Cromwell said. "Hayley and Alysa dropped a very tough one in the semifinals of the two-flight. That is the kind of match we will not lose next spring, but we're still in the learning stage. It's a process and it's a system, but we did go 5-1 at doubles today, so that system is working."

Shannon beat Ari Dechter of Bradley, 6-0, 6-2, and will face Jordan Eggleston of Drake in the Gold final tomorrow. Colarossi beat Cassia Wojtalik of Bradley, 6-3, 6-1, in one Campinile Flight semifinal, while Kurer beat Meredith McDonagh of Bradley, 6-0, 6-1, in the flight's other semifinal.

In doubles play, Colarossi and Kurer will square off with a tandem from Drake after a pair of wins Saturday. First they beat a duo from Upper Iowa, 8-1, before capturing an impressive 8-5 victory over a tandem from Iowa State.

"That win over Iowa State was very nice for Christina and Kristin and it is great for them to get to the final of their flight," Cromwell said. "That win was especially nice as Iowa State really had our number at singles earlier in the day. We went 4-3 in singles and those three losses were all to Cyclone players."

In other action Saturday, Pendleton's near-miss kept her out of the finals of the TC Flight. She battled to win the second set against Waites before falling in a super tiebreaker. She will now face Alexa Harrington of Upper Iowa in a third-place match tomorrow.

Hayley Marshall captured a 6-4, 6-1 win over Stephanie Londre of Green Bay. She will now face Phylis Tigges of Illinois State in the Purple Flight back draw finals. Meanwhile, Alysa Straub dropped a 6-2, 6-1 decision to Lydia Green of Iowa State and will now face Madeline Jolly of Saint Louis in the UNI Flight third-place match Sunday.

Meanwhile, in other doubles action Saturday, Marshall and Straub easily beat a duo from South Dakota in the quarterfinals before suffering the heartbreaking tiebreaker loss in the semifinals.

Also in doubles, Shannon and Pendleton claimed a pair of matches in the back draw of the Purple Flight.

Sunday's action gets underway at 9:30 a.m.