NCC women’s tennis is soaring off a successful fall season as the spring season is now in full swing, with the NCAA Championships just over a month away.
The team concluded their fall season with a perfect record of 14-0 and 8-0 in conference play, the most wins in a fall season in program history. While having a perfect season, the Cardinals finished their fall season with a CCIW Championship win over Wheaton College making it their second consecutive title and second overall in program history.
The Cardinals were awarded more accolades, including Kaeli Smashey ‘22 winning CCIW Player of the Year and Coach of the Year for Ryan Jump. Joining those two were First Team All-CCIW player Hannah Hougland ‘22 while Alaina Kanthaphixay ‘22 and Natalie Bassett ‘25 secured Second Team All-CCIW.
Soaring For Spring Season
With the team’s great success in the fall, they look forward to doing the same in the spring.
“We have a very challenging schedule this spring,” said Jump. “We will play six to seven nationally ranked teams so we are excited to see how we stand at the national level before our AQ (Automatic Qualifier) at the end of April.”
The spring season started on March 5 against No. 17 Washington University. The Cardinals would suffer their first loss of the season but immediately turned things around during their spring break trip to Florida, soaring to four consecutive wins.
After the trip to Florida, the Cardinals had a home match against Concordia University. They continued their win streak to five games, beating Concordia eight matches to one. Sjana Henderson ‘22 got the first win in singles at the No. 5 position winning 6-0 and 6-2. For doubles play, Hougland and Kanthaphixay won their match 8-2 followed by Smashey and Bassett securing an 8-1 victory.
Following the win against Concordia, North Central headed to Concordia Wisconsin to compete in the Midwest Invitational for the first time on April 1. Their first match was against Grinnell College. Houghland and Kanthaphixay took down the No. 14 ranked doubles team in the region as they won 8-6. The other doubles teams won their matches to give the Cardinals a boost. However, the Cardinals only won one out of the six singles matches, giving Grinnell the edge and winning 5-4.
On the final day, North Central lost their next two matches to No. 15 Kenyon College and Hope College by the same score of 5-4. There were hard-fought matches in both doubles and singles. North Central doubles swept both Kenyon and Hope but could not get the extra win in singles to claim victory.
Playoff Pursuits
A more demanding spring season has given Jump hope for playoff aspirations. Building off of previous seasons has been a trend for the coach.
“We are hopeful for a good AQ tournament to get our team into the tournament,” said Jump. “We need to build off our second-round appearance from a year ago. Individually our schedule allows for Smashey in singles and Hougland, Kanthaphixay in doubles to have an opportunity to sneak in the individual draws.”
Smashey is currently 12-2 in singles matches and 14-2 in doubles matches while being ranked fourteenth in the ITA Central Region. Hougland and Kanthphixay are ranked as the ninth-best doubles teammates in the region for ITA with a record of 15-3.
The Cardinals will look to soar through and finish the spring season strong. Crucial matches against top-ranked University of Chicago and Wisconsin-Whitewater can propel them to an AQ. The NCAA Tournament is within reach for them, and they believe it. The national championship is set for May 13. The championship location is yet to be announced.
