Simpson beats Northwestern, drops close match to Central

PELLA - The Simpson women's tennis team split a pair of contests over the weekend, beating Northwestern (Iowa) 8-1 before losing to Central, 5-4.

The Storm (8-15) cruised against Northwestern in the first contest of the day, sweeping the doubles competition and winning 5 of 6 singles matches.

Mikayla Struebing earned a 7-5, 6-3 win over Julie Mineart at No. 1 singles, Tiffany Bost won a three-set match over Kellie Korver at No. 3 (6-4, 4-6, 10-6), and Allison Anderson defeated Laura Starr 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3. Lindsay Nash took a 6-2, 6-3 win over Kate Mannenbach at the four spot and Whitney Thompson notched a 6-3, 7-5 win over Rachel Nysetveld at the sixth spot.

Bost and Anderson eased to an 8-2 win at No. 1 doubles, Struebing and Lauren Schemmel won 8-2 at No. 2 doubles and Nash and Maggie McDevitt beat Nessa Summers and Missy Yorchak 8-6 at No. 3.

Against Central, Simpson started off strong winning 2 of 3 doubles matches. After Bost and Anderson lost a tough 8-6 match at No. 1, Struebing and Schemmel notched an 8-2 win at No. 2 and the team of Nash and McDevitt inched out a 9-7 win over Blake Taylor and Nicole Curren.

But only Nash and Thompson got wins in singles competition. Nash beat Carissa Bane 6-4, 6-2 at No. 4 singles and Thompson beat Carin Reisch in three sets at No. 6, 6-3, 5-7, 1-0. Anderson lost a tough, three-set match at No. 3 singles, losing to Emily Swartz 6-7, 6-1, 1-0.

Simpson returns to action Tuesday, April 12 when it travels to Lamoni for a makeup contest against Graceland, originally scheduled for March 26. First serve is set for 4 p.m.