MARION, Ind. -- No. 9 Indiana Wesleyan University women’s tennis nearly earned their third victory over a top-10 opponent this season but fell just short in that bid in a 5-4 loss to No. 5 Cardinal Stritch (Wis.) at Sutter Tennis Center. Indiana Wesleyan is now 22-4 on the season.

Game Vitals

• Score:  Indiana Wesleyan - 4   |   Cardinal Stritch - 5
• Records:  Indiana Wesleyan 22-4   |   Cardinal Stritch 5-1
• NAIA Top- 25 Rank:  Indiana Wesleyan - No. 9   |   Cardinal Stritch - No. 5
• Location:   Sutter Tennis Center   |   Indiana Wesleyan University   |   Marion, Indiana 
   

What Went Down (Doubles)

• Indiana Wesleyan and Cardinal Stritch split the top two doubles matches.
• IWU took No. 1-singles as Katie Wilson (SR/Middletown, Ind.) and Lucia Solis (FR/Tucuman, Argentina) won 8-0 while Cardinal Stritch won No. 2-doubles 8-4 over Alex Mella (FR/Libertyville, Ill.) and Rachel Bottorff (JR/Newburgh, Ind.).
• What would be a critical point at the end of the day, Cardinal Stritch captured No. 3-doubles 9-8 over Kelsey Vessels (JR/Roanoke, Ind.) and Ellen Hornett (JR/Fishers, Ind.). The IWU duo led the match 7-3 before CSU reeled off six of the last seven games.
   

What Went Down (Singles)

• Indiana Wesleyan and Cardinal Stritch split the six singles matches. IWU won the top three matches while Cardinal Stritch took the last three.
• Lucia Solis won in straight set 6-2, 6-4 at No. 2-singles.
• Katie Wilson and Rachel Bottorff both won in three sets. Wilson won 7-6, 2-6, 10-5 at No. 1-singles and Bottorff pulled off a 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 victory at No. 3-singles.
• Cardinal Stritch won three singles matches in two sets. Alex Mella lost 6-2, 6-4 at No. 4-singles, Marissa Klein (FR/Evansville, Ind) fell 6-1, 6-4 at No. 5-singles, and Kelsey Vessels was defeated at No. 6-singles by scores of 7-6, 6-2.
  
   

Coach’s Corner

•  “We had our opportunity to upset the No. 5 team in the nation and we need to take advantage of those opportunities. We will get better and learn from this. We will go back to work tomorrow. We play a very good Davenport team and will need to be playing our best tennis to get the win.”   -- IWU head coach Eddy Shigley
   

Next Time Out

• Indiana Wesleyan plays again on Saturday as they host No. 17 Davenport (Mich.) and No. 15 Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) at the Sutter Tennis Center. The Davenport match is at 9 a.m. and the Olivet Nazarene match will begin at 4 p.m.