LOUISVILLE, Ken. -- The University of North Dakota women's tennis team defeated Bellarmine, 4-3, on Saturday to open the 2022-23 championship portion of the season in Louisville, Ken. 

"It's not easy to win on the road at this level, so I am very proud of this team for getting the victory today while overcoming a few obstacles along the way, including getting in our own way more than a few times during the match," said North Dakota head tennis coach Tom Boysen. "We did not have a good day taking advantage of early leads in games and sets, and often had trouble making routine shots to close out games."

Following a victory on the top court by Bellarmine (0-1) to start doubles play, UND (1-0) started to rally when Charlotte Bowles and Nyah Kauders knotted it up at one win apiece with a 7-5 triumph at the No. 3 position before Jule Schulte and Nore Heinitz teamed up for a 7-6 win on the middle court to seal a 1-0 lead for the visitors following the conclusion of two-person play. 

"As this team has proven many times, however, they don't go away, and they got better as the match got longer," said Boysen. 

Kauders extended the lead to 2-0 on the No. 2 court with a 6-2, 6-1 victory but the Knights answered with back-to-back wins at the first and third positions to tie the match at 2-2 with three singles contests to go. 

"I was really pleased with how Nyah took control of her match early and never let her opponent get any momentum," said Boysen.

Andrea Jansson restored the lead for the visitors by a 7-5, 6-1 score before Angela Georgieva sealed the win with a 6-1, 6-0 trouncing at the bottom spot to give UND the 4-2 lead in an eventual 4-3 victory. 

"Andrea finished her match playing extremely well," said Boysen. "Angela came through in a huge way for us today in a very stressful situation in a very close match. So happy for her to clinch the win for the team today."

North Dakota closes out the weekend in Nashville against Lipscomb at 10 a.m. 

Postgame Notes

• UND improves to 1-0 to begin the season
• The victory was the first in program history over Bellarmine 
• Kauders, Jansson and Georgieva all improve to 1-0 on the season in singles play 
• The win for Kauders was her first in a North Dakota uniform
• Georgieva collected the clinching point for UND in the victory 
• UND wins its season opener for the first time since Jan. 26, 2019 at Carleton College