Contact: Jenna McElroy, Sports Info & Social Media Intern, mcelroy@midwestconference.org
 
Tournament Page
 
GRINNELL, Iowa – After winning its fourth Midwest Conference (MWC) Championship with a perfect 9-0 season in the fall, Lake Forest College enters the MWC 4-Team Tournament as the favorite to claim the automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament.
 
On Thursday, the top seeded Foresters will play fourth seed St. Norbert College in the semifinals with No. 2 Grinnell College and No. 3 Cornell College facing off in the other game. Both semifinal matches take place at 11:30 a.m. at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The winners advanced to the final to be played at 4:00 p.m. that evening.
 
Lake Forest posted a record of 6-4 during spring play against non-conference opponents. The Foresters enter the MWC Tournament on a three-match winning streak. In contrast, St. Norbert won only two matches in the spring season after going 6-3 in league play.
 
The two teams faced off near the end of the regular season this past fall with the Foresters earning a convincing 9-0 victory. Lake Forest’s top two players Julie Lord and Allison Watts dropped just five games combined in singles play while Katie Wegrecki earned a 6-0 sweep at the No. 6 spot.
 
St. Norbert’s Hannah Swajanen did go three sets against Emma Wang at the No. 4 flight but fell 6-7, 6-1, 10-6. Nicole Pfotenhauer also put up a good fight at No. 5 singles as she pushed Tyranny Miller in a 7-5 first set loss before losing the second 6-3.
 
In the other semifinal matchup, the Midwest Conference’s two Iowa schools will face off. Grinnell College enters the 2019 MWC Tournament as the defending champions and winners of 12 of the last 15 team titles. The Pioneers only loss to a league opponent came against Lake Forest while Cornell lost two matches, one to the Foresters and the other to the Pioneers.
 
Grinnell defeated the Rams 6-3 back in late September thanks to wins from the middle of its lineup. After taking two of three doubles games, Isabel Green, Lily Hamilton, and Brenda Guan grabbed wins at the No. 3-5 singles flights while Abby Nielsen cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 win at the No. 1 spot.
 
Rams freshman Cami Gricius, the Newcomer of the Year honoree at the fall MWC Individual Tournament, contributed two of Cornell’s three points. Gricius pulled out an 8-6 win at No. 1 doubles before outlasting the Pioneers’ Emma Gaydos 6-2, 2-6, 10-8 at No. 2 singles. Senior Janice Elkerton picked up the Rams final win at the No. 6 spot.
 
Cornell won only two of its six matches this spring while Grinnell stayed busy playing twice as many matches as the Rams. The Pioneers went 6-6 against non-conference opponents in 12 spring matches and come into the MWC Tournament off an 8-1 win over Coe College.
 
For all the tournament information, visit the MWC Tournament page here.