The Peacock tennis team split their weekend duals against a pair of Northern Sun Conference foes in St. Cloud, Minn. on Saturday and Sunday. Upper Iowa defeated the host Huskies of St. Cloud State University 4-3 on Saturday, but dropped a 5-2 decision to the Bulldogs of the University of Minnesota Duluth on Sunday. UIU is now 1-3 this spring both overall and in the NSIC.

In Saturday's dual with the Huskies, UIU won the No. 1 doubles match 6-2 behind Maryke Badenhorst and Shakhnaza Zhanatova, but dropped No. 2 doubles in a tightly-contested match 7-5. SCSU claimed the doubles point with a 6-3 win at No. 3 doubles. Upper Iowa scored four wins in singles to claim the dual by a point thanks to wins at No. 1, 2, 3 and 5. Zhanatova won a three-set match 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 at No. 1 and Badenhorst followed with a dominant 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 2. Deimante Krivickaite scored a solid 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 3 and Lavanya Singh rallied after dropping the first set at No. 5 to win 2-6, 7-5, 6-4. St. Cloud State picked up the wins at No. 4 and No. 6 in straight sets.

On Sunday, Zhanatova and Badenhorst continued to play well at No. 1 doubles, but the Bulldogs were able to claim the doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3 by scores of 6-2 and 6-1. Minnesota Duluth grabbed wins at No. 3, 4, 5 and 6 although two of the wins were three set bouts. Zhanatova made it a clean sweep for the weekend with her second win at No. 1 singles, 6-0, 6-1, while Badenhorst also scored an undefeated weekend at No. 2 with a 6-0, 6-1 victory. The Bulldogs cruised to wins at No. 4 and No. 6, but had their hands full with Krivickaite and Singh at No. 3 and No. 5. Krivickaite won her first set 6-0, but dropped the next two frames 6-4 and 6-1, while Singh won the second set 6-1, but lost the first and third sets by 6-3 and 6-4 counts. 

The Peacocks will continue their Northern Sun Conference season this coming weekend in Winona, Minn. against the University of Sioux Falls and Augustana University on Feb. 23-24.