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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 3:39 p.m., Friday, May 16, 2008

Top-ranked BYUH women fall in NCAA II tennis semifinals

The top-ranked Brigham Young University Hawai'i women's tennis team was upset in the semifinals of the NCAA II National Championship Tournament by second-ranked Armstrong Atlantic State, 5-1 today at Houston, Texas.

The match brought to an end the Seasiders' 88-match winning streak.

BYU–Hawai'i ends the season at 28-1. Since entering NCAA II play in the spring of 1999, BYU–Hawaii had a dual match record of 321-3. Armstrong Atlantic State is now 31-1 for the season and will play for the national championship tomorrow.

The Seasiders, who played with four freshmen and one sophomore in the lineup, trailed 2-1 after the three doubles matches and were unable to pick up any wins in the singles matches before play was halted.

In the doubles matches, the Seasiders' duo of Jenny Chin and Ayako Ikeda took an 8-2 win at No. 3 doubles to give BYU–Hawai'i an initial lead. However, top-ranked Elwen Li and Maggie Deng were upset at No. 1 doubles, 8-5 by the nation's third-ranked team of Iulia Stupak and Gabriella Kovacs to even the match. BYU–Hawai'i's Ramona Husaru and Becky Lu were then toppled by Martina Beckmann and Alida Muller-Wehlau by an 8-6 score at the No. 2 doubles spot.

In singles play, Armstrong Atlantic State picked up wins at No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 to end the match. Only Deng was leading in her match for the Seasiders when play was stopped.

Results:

Singles:

No. 1 #1 Elwen Li, BYUH vs. #2 Iulia Stupak, AASU 6-7(8) DNC

No. 2 #4 Maggie Deng, BYUH vs. #9 Johanna Dahlback, AASU 6-2, 5-5 DNC

No. 3 #14 Ramona Husaru, BYUH vs. #19 Alida Muller-Wehlau, AASU 6-1, 4-2 DNC

No. 4 #25 Gabriella Kovacs, AASU def. #16 Becky Lu, BYUH 6-1, 6-4

No. 5 Martina Beckmann, AASU def. #47 Jenny Chin, BYUH 6-4, 6-1

No. 6 Alisa Kagukina, AASU def. Ayako Ikeda, BYUH 6-1, 6-2

Doubles:

No. 1 #3 Stupak/Kovacs, AASU def. #1 Li/Deng, BYUH 8-5

No. 2 #10 Beckmann/Muller-Wehlau, AASU def. #8 Husaru/Lu, BYUH 8-6

No. 3 Chin/Ikeda, BYUH def. Dahlback/Kagukina, AASU 8-2