After a gutsy comeback ending with dramatic three-set victories by Maria Farina and Ayu Ishibashi Saturday for a 4-3 win over McNeese, Northwestern’s women’s tennis team can clinch at least a Southland Conference co-championship today in an 11 a.m. homecourt match against Southeastern.
The Lady Demons (8-6, 7-0) welcome Southeastern (12-7, 3-5) to the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex after edging visiting McNeese to keep alive their bid for an outright SLC title, the second in three years for the program. A win today assures no worse than a share of the crown.
Ishibashi and fellow senior Tjasa Klevisar will be honored in a ceremony shortly before play begins.
With Saturday’s match hanging in the balance, the Lady Demons trailed 3-2 and had to win on courts No. 4 and 5 in order to keep their perfect conference record alive.
Farina and Ayu Ishibashi came through in dramatic fashion.
Farina battled through a thriller against the reigning Southland Player of the Week Alexa Martinez. After winning the first set 6-3, Farina dropped the second 6-4, then delivered in the clutch with another 6-4 victory in the deciding set to tie the overall team score at 3-3.
She rattled off three games in a row in the final set and kept the edge.
The outcome came down to Ishibashi ad McNeese’s Morale. The NSU senior overcame heat stress to prevail 7-5, 0-6, 7-5.
After Morales rallied to claim two games and draw even at 5-5 in the third, Ishibashi gutted out the victory and almost immediately went into an agonizing series of body cramps.
NSU has two regular-season SLC matches left. After today’s contest, the Lady Demons go to third-place SFA on Saturday.
TRACK & FIELD: When Maygan Shaw has a goal in mind, bet it will be achieved.
Prior to Saturday’s Leon Johnson NSU Invitational at the Walter P. Ledet Track Complex, Shaw mentioned that she wanted to a sub-52-second 400 meters to top a time her late grandfather posted in the event.
The senior from Pineville did exactly that, clocking a 51.87 in the women’s 400-meter dash, which not only broke the Northwestern State record, but also the meet record, the Ledet Complex standard and a 25-year-old Southland Conference mark.
“It feels amazing,” Shaw said. “Honestly, I cannot even fathom what just happened. I am glad that I hit that goal I wanted to hit, running in the 51s. That is so crazy. I’ve been wanting to do that for six years, so it’s amazing.
“If he was here today, he would be so proud of me. I am so glad I was able to reach that goal before I graduated. It’s a great feeling.”
It highlighted a strong day from the Northwestern athletes, as several personal bests and season bests were set during the school’s only home meet of the year.
Shaw broke a conference record by Christine Amertil of Southeastern Louisiana in 2000.
“They’ve all been grinding,” head coach Mike Heimerman said. “This is when you want to see all these things happening and this is the meet it generally starts coming around for all the athletes. It is a month out from conference, so hopefully good things are happening and leads us in the right direction.”
It wasn’t her only strong performance, as Shaw — along with Samari Finney, Dynia Lewis and Sileena Farrell — set a season best in the women’s 4×100, running a 44.94.
In the men’s sprints, Tavis Wilson posted personal bests in both the 100 and 200, as well as helping lead the Demons to a 4×100 relay victory.
He clocked a blistering 10.33 in the 100 to win the event, leading three Demons among the top five. He was joined by Elijah Rowe (10.55) and Mikkel Johansson (10.62), who placed fifth and sixth.
Those three were also involved in the men’s 200, all placing in the top six, led by Rowe’s 21.06 to finish fourth. Wilson (21.10) also ran a personal best to place fifth and Johansson ran a season-best 21.10 to come in sixth.
For two years, Demons’ junior Randy Kelly had been searching for a 7-0 clearance in the men’s high jump. He had come close with his 6-11 and 6-11.5 performances. That 7-0 success happened Saturday.
“It feels like a weight off my shoulders,” Kelly said. “We came out here every day and never gave up. We knew it was going to happen eventually and it happened today and I am glad it did.”
The Demons and Lady Demons next head to Baylor for the Michael Johnson Invitational, a two-day meet that begins Friday, as the teams aim to keep improving prior to the conference meet next month.