Bemidji State wraps up tennis regular season with Augustana and Sioux Falls

The Bemidji State University tennis team is back on the road Friday for pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matches. The Beavers will go head-to-head with Augustana University at 8 a.m. in Grand Forks, N.D. before wrapping up the 2021 regular season with a matchup with University of Sioux Falls at 10:30 a.m.

Bemidji State comes into its first-head-to-head matchup since March 28 with a 4-5 record overall. The Beavers earned a victory in their last outing defeating St. Cloud State University 6-1 in a neutral-site NSIC contest.

Last season, the Beavers were swept by the 10-time defending conference champions, 7-0. The Vikings dropped just one set in doubles play as the BSU pair of Hannah Peterson and Maggie Richardson were defeated 6-1 in the No. 2 doubles match. AU went on to earn straight-sets wins at all six singles positions to take the match.

AU is 10-1 with a 7-0 mark in NSIC play. The Vikings have won nine straight matches coming into thier meeting with BSU. In its last action, AU picked up matching 7-0 matches at University of Mary and versus Minnesota State University Moorhead, March 27 and 28, respectively.

A year ago, Bemidji State also fell to Sioux Falls, 6-1 in Sioux Falls, S.D. It marked the third consecutive season USF has defeated the Beavers. While WSU escaped with the doubles point, BSU’s No. 3 pair of Peterson and Sam Edlund recorded a 6-3 win. Laney Rutkowski was the only BSU player to pick up a win in singles play. She posted a 6-2 win in the opening set and completed the No. 5 singles victory with a 6-1 win in the second set for BSU’s only team point.

The Cougars are 4-4 overall with a 4-3 mark in league competition. USF has lost two of its last three matches. Most recently, the Cougars defeated MSU Moorhead, 5-2, March 27 before defeating U Mary, 6-1 in Bismarck, N.D, March 28.