Upper Iowa 7 - Minnesota Duluth 2 || Upper Iowa 5 - St. Cloud State 4

The Peacock tennis team continued their strong start to the 2017 season. Upper Iowa earned another two wins in Sartell, Minn. over Northern Sun Conference opponents to move to 6-0 on the season. UIU defeated Minnesota Duluth 7-2 on Saturday evening and then outlasted St. Cloud State 5-4 on Sunday.

Against UMD, the Peacocks took a 2-1 lead out of the doubles matches thanks to wins by the tandems of Isabella Sella/Linn Sorman and Shakhnaza Zhanatova/Kelly Jachymowski at No. 1 and No. 2 by scores of 8-4 and 8-6, respectively.

In the singles matches, UIU scored wins by Sella (No. 1, 6-2, 7-5), Zhanatova (No. 2, 6-0, 6-0), Sorman (No. 3, 6-1, 6-1), Jachymowski (No. 4, 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (10-7)) and Anna Okolot (No. 5, 7-5 (7-5), 6-2). The lone win in singles for the Bulldogs came at No.6.

On Sunday, Upper Iowa once again claimed two wins in the three doubles matches. Sella and Sorman combined for an 8-1 victory at No. 1 and Okolot paired with Breanna Heichert at No. 3 doubles for an 8-4 win.

Sella and Zhanatova were impressive in their singles matches at No. 1 (6-4, 6-0) and No. 2 (6-2, 6-0) as both pitched shutouts in the second set.

St. Cloud State stormed back with close decisions at No. 3, No. 4 and No. 6 to tie the match at 4-4. All three singles wins for the Huskies came thanks to a tie breaker after the competitors split the first two sets.

The dual came down to the No. 5 singles match where Okolot was up to the challenge. She defeated Alexie Portz of SCSU 6-3, 6-2 to improve to 5-1 in singles play this season. The win gave UIU their fifth point and the dual victory.

UIU only has one match over the next three weeks. The Peacocks will take on the University of Northern Iowa in Waterloo, Iowa on Mar. 4 at 2 p.m. Upper Iowa will return to NSIC action against Winona State University on Mar. 17 at 6 p.m. in Winona, Minn.