ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The W women's tennis, seeded No. 3 in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) South Division tournament, pulled off an upset in its semifinal match versus No. 2-seed Principia College, scoring a 4-2 win at the Davis Tennis Center. That assured the Owls of a berth in the UMAC championship tournament next weekend, as one of the Division's top two finishers.
 
MUW fell to top-seeded Greenville University, 4-0, in the UMAC South finals bout.
 
Just over a month ago, the Owls lost to the Panthers, 4-3, in Columbus. But in the rematch on Saturday in St. Louis, the biggest difference was that this time MUW won the doubles team point and jumped out the the quick 1-0 lead. The W secured the point by taking two-of-three matches, winning the No. 2 pairs (6-3) with Austin Hays and Bailey Flynn, and then the No. 3 contest (6-2) with the duo of Emma Horton and Alaina Mathis.
 
The Panthers won Nos. 1 and 2 singles to lead in the team scoring, 2-1. But Mathis knotted the match at 2-2 with her 6-2, 6-3 win at fifth singles. At fourth singles, Flynn completed a 6-4, 6-1 win to put her team within one victory of the win.
 
And that "W" came at sixth singles off the racquet of Horton. Horton battled to a 7-5 win in her first set but, with the team win on the line, she unleashed a 6-0 win in set two for the clincher
 
At third singles, Kayleigh Griffin split her first two sets. Her match went unfinished, once The W clinched the team victory.
 
The UMAC conference tournament, a four-team tournament hosted at the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, begins Friday, May 1 (semifinals) and concludes Saturday, May 2 (championship). The tournament champion will receive the conference's automatic qualifying bid to the 2026 NCAA DIII Men's Tennis Championship.