Bemidji State to face Augustana in the opening round of the NSIC Tennis Tournament

The Bemidji State University tennis team will travel to Sioux Falls, S.D. to compete in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament Apr. 23-24. The eighth-seeded Beavers will take on top-seeded Augustana University in the opening round of the tournament Friday at Match Pointe. The match will begin at 2 p.m.

The Beavers will open the eight-team, single-elimination tournament with a 4-7 record. The team is led by a pair of freshman, Sophie Groen and Shaelyn Johnson. Johnson leads the team with seven (7-4) singles wins as the Beavers’ No. 2 singles player, while Groen was 6-4 in BSU’s No. 1 singles slot. The pair also combined lead the Beavers and finish among the league’s top doubles teams with an 8-2 record.

The Beavers capped thier 2021 regular-season with a match versus Augustana. BSU fell, 7-0, to AU in Grand Forks, N.D. but not before the Beavers’ duo of Hannah Peterson and Laney Rutkowski posted a 6-4 victory in the No. 3 doubles match. It wasn’t enough for the Beavers to avoid the sweep, but it stood as the first time BSU has earned a singles or doubles win versus AU since it won two singles matches March 7, 2009.

Augustana opens the event without and NSIC loss since April 19, 2009. Since joining the NSIC for the 2008-09 campaign, the Viking are 136-3 in NSIC matches, have won 11 straight NSIC regular season titles and the last nine NSIC Tournaments, which includes 25 straight NSIC Tournament matches.

The winner of the Beaver/Viking matchup will move on to play in the semifinal round Saturday to face the winner fo the No. 4 University of Mary/No. 5 Southwest Minnesota State University quarterfinal. Semifinals begin at 8 a.m. with the championship match set for non Saturday at Match Pointe.