Contact: Jenna McElroy, Sports Info & Social Media Intern, mcelroy@midwestconference.org
 
Semi 1 Box Score | Semi 2 Box Score
 
MADISON, WI – The top two seeds in the Midwest Conference (MWC) Women’s Tennis Tournament both won their matches in shutout fashion earlier this afternoon. No. 1 Lake Forest College, the regular season MWC Champion, defeated St. Norbert College 5-0 while Grinnell College was also 5-0 winner over Cornell College.
 
The Foresters and the Pioneers will retake the court in just a couple hours as the final is set to start at 4:00 p.m. at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisconsin. The 2019 MWC Tournament final will be a rematch of last year’s that saw Grinnell earned a 5-1 victory. Lake Forest has had the Pioneer’s number so far this season as the Forester’s won the regular season match 6-3 and defeated Grinnell in all but one flight at the fall individual tournament.
 
The Forester’s No. 2 doubles team of Allison Watts and Tyranny Miller earned the lone point in last year’s final and came away an 8-6 winner to lead a Lake Forest doubles sweep at the September meeting. The Pioneer’s top player Abby Nielsen defeated Julie Lord 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 at the No. 1 spot for one of Grinnell’s three points in the match. However, Lord got the better of Nielsen in the singles tournament final 6-2, 6-3.
 
Freshman Isabel Green has two wins over Lake Forest’s Leeza Bodnar as she was a 6-5 winner in the regular season before once again topping Bodnar 6-4, 6-2 in the singles final at the No. 3 flight. The team’s No. 5 players, Brenda Guan for the Pioneers and Miller for the Foresters, have played two tight matches this season. Guan edged out Miller 7-5, 1-6, 11-9 in a 3-setter during the regular season match before having to retire down 7-5, 4-2 in the individual final.
 
Grinnell looks to represent the MWC at the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year and tenth time overall while Lake Forest is going for its first NCAA appearance.
 
Before the semifinals this morning, Grinnell senior Lily Hamilton was award the MWC Elite 20 Award. The award recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average, participating in his or her respective sport's culminating championship or tournament event. Hamilton is a political science/French double major who has earned multiple Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Scholar-Athlete and All-Conference selections.

Semifinal 1 GC def. CC 5-0
 
Grinnell dropped just eight total games in its shutout of Cornell to advance to the MWC Tournament final. The Pioneers swept the doubles competition behind 8-1 wins from the No. 1 and 3 pairings of Abby Nielsen-Judith Fan and Sara Amano-Lily Hamilton. Isabel Green and Brenda Guan were 8-2 winners at the No. 2 spot.
 
The sweep left the Pioneers just needing two points in singles play and the top of their lineup delivered. Nielsen earned a 6-3, 6-0 win over the Rams’ Abbey Nelson at No. 1 singles while Fan defeated Emmaline Fievet 6-0, 6-1 at the No. 2 flight.
 
Semifinal 2 LFC def. SNC 5-0
Lake Forest did not have a let down after entering the MWC Tournament off a 9-0 regular season and eight of nine wins in the fall individual tournament as the Foresters earned a 5-0 shutout over St. Norbert to move on the finals. The day started off with a pair of 8-2 wins from Julia Lord-Leeza Bodnar and Allison Watts-Tyranny Miller at No. 1 and 2 doubles respectively while Tebatso Duba-Tyranny Miller won 8-3 at the No. 3 spot.
 
Lord and Watts cruised to victory at the No. 1 and 2 singles spots as the pair dropped just three games combined to clinch the victory for the Foresters. Both won their second sets 6-0 after Lord beat Lauren Paulson 6-1 in the first and Watts won 6-2 over Hannah Swajanen.
 
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