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Sep. 28, 2009

Sydney Bell Makes Immediate Impact To Tennis Program


Complete Results 

In the first fall event for the Northern Colorado women's team, freshman Sydney Bell played for the title in the Brown Singles section of the Wyoming Cowgirl Invitational.

Bell defeated Rui Xu of Colorado State (6-4, 7-6 (2)), Paloma Navarro of Wyoming (6-2, 7-6) and fellow doubles teammate Jenny Whateley (6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-1) in the semifinals en route to the title match, where she fell 6-1, 6-4 to Kim Van Gingel of Wyoming.

Whateley reached the semifinals by beating Elsje Beneke of Weber State (6-1, 6-0) and Lauren Mullhern from Colorado State (1-6, 6-3, 6-2).

Senior Luiza Xavier was also in the brown draw and defeated Lindsay Butzer from Colorado State (6-1, 6-0) before falling to champion Van Gingel 6-1, 6-2. In the back draw, Xavier won a straight sets match against Kirsten Stople (CSU), 6-2, 6-4.

In the gold singles draw, Tiffany Knop lost in a tiebreaker to Alexandra Kovacs from Wyoming, 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-1 in the opening match. She bounced back to defeat Keya Jenkins from Weber State in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3 before having to retire from the tournament due to injury.

Her sister Tabatha Knop defeated Stople 6-2, 6-2 in the opening round before losing to Rebecca Berger from Wyoming in the quarterfinals, 7-5, 6-3. In the back draw, Knop defeated Jenkins 6-3, 6-3.

In doubles action Bell and Whateley paired up, while the Knop sisters were once again a team. Bell and Whateley lost an exciting 9-8 (6) decision to Moore and Beneke from Weber State in the quarterfinals. In the back draw, the pair fell to eventual third-place finishers Holzinger and AL-Jazzaf from Colorado State.

Tabatha and Tiffany Knop lost to Van Hollen and Navarro from Wyoming 8-3 in the quarterfinals, defeated Stople and Mulhern from Colorado State, 8-4 in the back draw and then lost 8-3 to Farias and Jenkins from Weber State.

Xavier teamed with Mullen from Weber State in the doubles draw, dropping matches 8-2 and 8-3 to teams from Colorado State.

The Bears return to the court this weekend at the Air Force Invitational.