MOBILE, Ala. - No. 21/No. 18 seed William Woods University (9-8) trailed 3-1 and nearly completed an unbelievable comeback, but the Owls saw their season end to No. 15/No. 15 seed Holy Cross College (Ind.) (9-5) in Round 1 of the 44th Annual NAIA Women's Tennis National Championships Tuesday at Mobile Tennis Center.
Hanna Lindeboom (No. 1),
Mireia Simon Sanchez (No. 2) and
Chloe Hecker (No. 6) won in singles for The Woods.
"Tough loss for our women today, but it was a great match," William Woods tennis coach
Abigail Lemberger Hughes said. "They showed big fight, and the score line reflects that; I am really proud of how they fought until the end. It's been a great season for our women, and I am really happy with how we ended the year."
The Owls dropped the doubles point to the Saints: William Woods's
Kristina Dimitrijevic and
Charlotte Ready lost 6-1 at the two slot to Holy Cross's Sofia Carvalho Rocha and Nicole Martinez, ranked ninth in the latest ITA NAIA women's tennis doubles rankings, and WWU's
Zara Littlejohn and
Samya Sikand fell 6-0 to HCC's Jamison Geoffreys and Anna Vanderhyde at the three line.
In singles, The Woods dropped the first matchup to conclude as
Sophia Hausner lost 6-0, 6-2 to Rocha at the five spot, which gave the Saints a 2-0 team score lead.
Simon Sanchez put the Owls on the team scoreboard, picking up a 6-2, 6-2 two-line upset triumph over Geofferys, slotted 69th in the most recent ITA NAIA women's tennis singles rankings.
Following that, Holy Cross sent itself one point from clinching the team result, 3-1, after the Owls' Dimitrijevic was defeated 6-0, 6-3 by Martinez at the three slot.
No. 31-ranked Lindeboom pushed it to a one-point team contest, beating the Saints' Victoria Savvidou at the top position. Then, Hecker tied it at 3 with her 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 come-from-behind win over Vanderhyde at the six.
With that result, it all came down to the winner of the No. 4 singles matchup between WWU's Sikand and HCC's Leah Gonzalez-Edwards. Sikand had the momentum early, taking the first set 6-3. Unfortunately, the Owl's sophomore dropped the final two-match deciding sets, 6-2, 6-1, to the Saints' junior.
Like last season in Chance Joost's fifth and final year at the helm, the Owls, under first-year head coach Lemberger Hughes, won a conference title - their ninth in as many postseasons since women's tennis was brought back to The Woods in 2015-16 (no conference tournament in COVID-19 shortened 2019-20) - were the No. 18 seed in the NAIA National Championships and had their season end with a Round 1 loss to the No. 15 seed.
William Woods finished the 2024-25 campaign 9-8 overall and 4-0 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference.
Tuesday marked the end of Lindeboom's iconic playing career for the Owls. The Groningen, Netherlands native became WWU's second first-team All-American in 2023-24 and earned four conference championships (2022-25), the 2023 ITA Central-West Regionals singles championship, a two-time ITA Central-West Regionals doubles champion (2021-22), three-time conference player of the year (2023-25) and a four-time all-conference selection (2022-25).
The Owls look forward to their second season in the Heart - the conference's second year of having its own conference tournament - and being a first-year complete member.
