The Peacock tennis team gets back to NSIC play after taking a detour to play in-state NCAA Division I foe Drake last weekend. The Peacocks are 7-3 since
returning to the courts in 2015. After a pair of losses to NCAA Division I foes Creighton and Northern Iowa, Upper Iowa has rolled to seven straight victories in the Northern Sun. During UIU's current conference winning streak, the team has won 61 of the 63 match points.The Peacocks will now face the challenge of taking on two of the NSIC's best by taking on the Cougars of Sioux Falls and Vikings of Augustana in Winona, Minn., on Mar. 28 and 29. Sioux Falls is currently 4-3 in conference play, which ties the Cougars for fifth in the NSIC. Augustana is tied with Upper Iowa at at the top of the Northern Sun at 7-0.
The Cougars are paced by Kara Bunkers, who holds a 5-3 record in singles play. The third doubles team of Bunkers and Abby Seigenthaler has won two straight and is 8-2 overall. USF is coming off a spring break trip where they faced NCAA Division I opponents Navy and Rhode Island, as well as Division III teams in Babson College and UMass Boston. The Cougars finished the trip 1-3 and are 6-6 overall and 4-3 in the NSIC.
The Vikings have four of the top five individual singles players in the Northern Sun. Meredith Lawrence tops all of the NSIC and is the only undefeated player remaining in the conference at 13-0. Berkley Darr (12-2), Jessa Richards (11-2) and Sydney Postal (11-3) round out the top players for the Augustana. Richards and Postal have each been awarded NSIC Tennis Player of the Week twice this season, along with Jenna Helleberg garnering the honor once. The Vikings are returning to conference play after bringing home a 3-1 record from Puerto Rico over spring break. AC dropped its first match to Navy, but rallied to beat Babson College, Colgate and UMass Boston. Augustana is now 14-2 overall and 7-0 in the Northern Sun.
In singles,
Saki Kawabata and
Kelly Jachymowski are both 10-3 on the season, while
Iris Verweij is 9-4 for the year in duals. The trio, along with
Victoria Kulbokas and
Yamit Vodavoz are all 7-0 in singles competition in the conference. In doubles, Verweij and Kawabata have combined for a 9-3 record overall and a 7-0 mark in the NSIC, while Vodavoz and Kulbokas (#2 doubles) and Jachymowski and Okolot (#3 doubles) have paired to go 7-0 with each other. The second and third doubles pairings for the Peacocks did not play together in the fall, but have hit it off in the spring season.
