Graduate student Kristine Lindal secured a three-set victory in her No. 3 singles match, helping the women’s tennis team top Grand Valley State and advance from the Midwest Regional Tournament to the NCAA Division II Championship for the first time in program history.
Softball
UMSL ended the regular season Sunday with by sweeping Bellarmine 1-0 and 6-5 to bounced back from a pair of losses Saturday at Southern Indiana. Junior Carly Kingery pitched both complete-game victories, combining for 22 strikeouts. Junior Chelsea Martinez drove in the two go-ahead runs in the night cap as the Tritons rallied from a 3-0 deficit. Senior Jennah Perryman provided the only run in the opener with a solo home run in the first inning. UMSL (30-20, 17-11 Great Lakes Valley Conference) will be the No. 4 seed in the GLVC Tournament, which begins Thursday and runs through Saturday. It opens its title defense against No. 5 seed Truman State at 10 a.m.
Baseball
The Tritons went 1-4 last week, beginning with a 9-4 loss to fifth-ranked Illinois Springfield before dropping three of four in a series at Missouri S&T. That included two extra-inning games and two others that weren’t decided until the final two innings. Senior Cooper Vinz tallied eight hits at S&T, moving his hitting streak to 10 games, while redshirt sophomore Derrick Freeman added six hits, including two doubles, and four RBI. UMSL (19-26, 10-14 GLVC) will close out the regular season with five games this week. The Tritons travel to Southern Indiana on Tuesday in nonconference play before hosting Rockhurst on Friday and Saturday in a four-game GLVC series.
Women’s Tennis
No. 26 UMSL is headed to the NCAA Division II Championships after defeating Hillsdale (5-3) and 24th-ranked Grand Valley State (5-4) last weekend in Midwest Regional competition. The Tritons rallied from a 2-1 deficit after doubles against Hillsdale and then got three-set wins at Nos. 1,2,3 singles in the victory over Grand Valley State. Sophomore Marina Prediger went a combined 4-0 in singles and doubles on the weekend. UMSL (14-5) will learn of its NCAA Tournament plans tonight when the bracket is unveiled at 7:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Women’s Golf
The Tritons earned a runner-up finish at the GLVC Championships, held Friday through Sunday at the Fox Run Golf Club. The team put together a three-day, 54-hole score of 923 (300-314-309), which ranks as the fifth lowest in program-history. UMSL finished second at the league tournament for the fourth straight year while Indianapolis won its seventh straight title by shooting an 886. Sophomore Emma Thorngren led three Triton finishers in the top-10, placing sixth with a 228 (72-77-79). UMSL will officially learn of its NCAA bid later this afternoon. The NCAA East Regional will be held May 7-9 in Big Rapids, Mich.
