Champion Saints lead postseason awards with five All-UMAC selections; Northwestern's Paskewitz Player of the Year
ST. PAUL, Minn.---The 2019 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) women's tennis season powerhouse College of St. Scholastica dominate en route to a fourth-straight regular season title. Following another successful year, the champion Saints headline the All-UMAC list with five selections, while Saints' coach Wells Patten was named UMAC Coach of the Year by his peers and Nikki Paskewitz of the University of Northwestern was named the Player of the Year, it was announced Tuesday.
Patten led the Saints to an impressive 17-6 record overall and a 7-0 conference mark. Under his guidance, the Saints not only won the regular season but took the postseason championship for the third-consecutive year. Patten's Saints will now make their fifth NCAA appearance in a row when they meet the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater on Friday.
This season, the Saints lost just four total points in team scores against UMAC opponents winning either 9-0 or 8-1. Additionally, Patten's team went a perfect 21-0 in UMAC doubles matches. Four Saints' players won at least four UMAC singles matches and 11 Saints recorded at least one win in conference matches.
In a competitive year at the top of UMAC lineups, Paskewitz emerged as the Player of the Year after going 14-10 overall and 6-1 in the UMAC at No. 1 singles. The senior also finished 14-9 overall at No. 1 doubles and 6-1 against UMAC pairs. Her top win of the year came against Martin Luther College when she defeated reigning UMAC Player of the Year Anna Hemmelman to earn her second UMAC Player of the Week award. Additionally, Paskewitz won six of eight singles matches during the month of April.
The champion Saints led the list of honors with five All-UMAC selections while the other three postseason teams in Northwestern, the University of Minnesota Morris and the University of Wisconsin-Superior each had two honorees. Bethany Lutheran College and Martin Luther each had one player named all-conference.
Paskewitz highlights a list of three players who have earned All-UMAC honors three times in their careers as she's joined by Hemmelman of Martin Luther and Northwestern teammate Emily Knight. Katelyn Rice of St. Scholastica and Alison Tollas of Wisconsin-Superior have each been named All-UMAC twice in their careers.
Each year the UMAC recognizes the team sportsmanship award, an accolade that is selected by the UMAC coaches and awarded to the team that best represented sportsmanship throughout the entire season. Crown College was selected as the 2019 recipient. Each team also had one representative on the individual sportsmanship award list.
Player of the Year Award* – Nikki Paskewitz, Sr., Northwestern
Coach of the Year Award – Wells Patten, St. Scholastica
First-Team UMAC All-Conference
| Name |
Year |
School |
Hometown/High School |
| Taylor Bolduan |
Fy. |
Bethany Lutheran |
New Ulm, Minn./New Ulm |
| Megan Dulong |
So. |
Wisconsin-Superior |
Grand Rapids, Minn./Grand Rapids |
| Elizabeth Fink |
Jr. |
St. Scholastica |
Rochester, Minn./Rochester Century |
| Brynne Hauer |
Fy. |
St. Scholastica |
Duluth, Minn./Duluth East |
| Anna Hemmelman |
Jr. |
Martin Luther |
Winona, Minn./Luther |
| Madilyn Jankila |
Fy. |
St. Scholastica |
Eveleth, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert |
| Maddie Johnson |
So. |
Minnesota Morris |
Grand Forks, N.D./Red River |
| Emily Knight |
Sr. |
Northwestern |
Fort Dodge, Iowa/Fort Dodge |
| Nikki Paskewitz |
Sr. |
Northwestern |
Staples, Minn./Staples-Motley |
| Katelyn Rice |
Jr. |
St. Scholastica |
Eveleth, Minn./Eveleth-Gilbert |
| Sam Tate |
So. |
Minnesota Morris |
Covington, Wash./Kentwood |
| Alison Tollas |
Jr. |
Wisconsin-Superior |
Ashland, Wis./Ashland |
| Sara Wennerstrand |
Sr. |
St. Scholastica |
Baxter, Minn./Brainerd |
UMAC Sportsmanship Awards
Team Award – Crown
Bethany Lutheran – Shoshana Bruner, Fy., Mankato, Minn./Mankato East
Crown – Lauren Sporleder, So., Delano, Minn./Delano
Martin Luther – Morgan Shevey, Sr., Muskego, Wis./Luther Prep
Minnesota Morris – Maddie Johnson, So., Grand Forks, N.D../Red River
North Central – Sierra Hunter, Jr., Dillsburg, Penn./Northern
Northwestern – Gracie LeBrun, Jr., Pine City, Minn./Pine City
St. Scholastica – Elizabeth Fink, Jr., Rochester, Minn./Rochester Century
Wisconsin-Superior – Maura Halvorsen, Jr., Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd