GRAND FORKS – The University of North Dakota women’s tennis team bounced back in a big way on Sunday, taking down Northern Iowa, 7-0, at Choice Health and Fitness in Grand Forks, N.D. 

UND grabs its third shutout victory of the season and second on its home court to improve to 5-2 on the campaign. The five victories in the first seven matches are the best start for the Fighting Hawks since the 2008-09 season, which was the first year of Division I play for the program. 

Doubles set the tone for the hosts once again, grabbing all three matches to take an early 1-0 lead. The bottom pairing of Alyssa Giupponi and Andrea Pineda started it off with a 6-1 victory before Jule Schulte and Nore Heinitz sealed the doubles point with a 7-5 score on the middle court. The top duo of Ethel Li and Aziza Aubin held strong in a 7-6 finish to complete the sweep of two-person play. 

Li won her third straight singles match on the No. 3 court to extend the lead to 2-0, matching her output from Friday’s match vs. Montana State with a pair of 6-3 wins before Giupponi battled back from a loss in her opening set to post a 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory from the bottom spot to push the advantage to 3-0. 

Heinitz secured the match clinch, battling back in each of her sets to win 6-4, 6-4 at the No. 4 position while Schulte dominated her third set at the second spot to notch a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 triumph and make it 5-0 UND. 

On the top court, Pineda also held off her opponent in a three setter, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, while Aubin showed her toughness at the No. 5 position by winning a tiebreak in the second set to force a super tiebreaker in the third set and claim a 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 1-0 (12-10) win and seal the 7-0 shutout victory. 

North Dakota will hit the road for a pair of matches in Milwaukee beginning on Friday afternoon at noon against Marquette.