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GRINNELL, Iowa - After recording a perfect Midwest Conference (MWC) regular season, the Grinnell College women's tennis team will be the favorite at Thursday's MWC Tournament at Nielsen Tennis Stadium on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tournament Page

The Pioneers (14-6, 9-0 MWC) will match up with Lake Forest College (10-9, 6-3 MWC) at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow. Grinnell beat the Foresters way back on September 10 by an 8-1 margin. Grinnell's lineup will feature No. 3 MWC singles champion Megan Jans and No. 5 singles champ Lily Hamilton. The Pioneers also had runner-up finishes at No. 1 singles by Judith Fan, No. 2 singles by Amelia Cogan and No. 4 singles by Anushka Joshi. Fan and Cogan also combine to form the top doubles tandem in the MWC after winning the No. 1 doubles crown in the fall. Grinnell enters the tournament on a three-match winning streak after beating Simpson College, Central College and Grand View University.

The Foresters have won two of their last three matches with wins over Concordia University Chicago and North Park University. Lucia Stumbras finished as the runner-up to Jans at No. 3 singles in the fall and was defeated by 6-2 scores. Stumbras leads the Foresters with 19 singles victories this season. Allison Watts tops the lineup for the Foresters and she has won 13 singles matches this season. She has also teamed up with Lake Forest's No. 2 singles player Leeza Bodnar in their last dual with Wheaton College.

The other semifinal will feature the Green Knights of St. Norbert College (21-11, 8-1 MWC) and the Rams of Cornell College (18-6, 7-2 MWC).

St. Norbert is the only MWC team to eclipse 20 wins for the season. The Green Knight lineup features two MWC singles champions from the fall. Katherine Ake took the title at No. 2 singles, while Meg Witt was crowned the champion at No. 6 singles. St. Norbert also was strong in doubles action in the fall, finishing runner-up at No. 1 and garnering the championship at No. 2 and No. 3. St. Norbert has been active in the spring season, going 9-7 and earned a 7-2 victory over Cornell way back on October 8.

Cornell has had a very successful spring campaign and has gone 8-3 in the second half of the season. The Rams feature the league's top player in Julia Thome, who is 24-5 on the season and won the No. 1 singles title in the fall. Anne Seng has 20 victories on the season and usually plays at the No. 6 spot. Thome and Shashanna Moll are a potent tandem at the top of the Ram's lineup and have totaled 22 wins. Abbey Nelson and Raquel Ruiz also sport an impressive 11-4 record, with nine of those wins coming at the No. 3 position.

The Rams and the Green Knights will also play at 11:30 on Thursday, with the winners meeting at approximately 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. The winner of the four-team tournament will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.