Although falling short in the semifinals of Summit League championship play, the SDSU tennis program earned multiple league awards including four all Summit League team titles and a women’s coach of the year. 

Coach Engdahl has brought the programs to new levels since he took over in June 2011. 

“When I began at SDSU, we were almost at the bottom of the Summit League rankings and we finished this year with a real contention of winning the whole competition,”Blackburne said. “We have never gone into a Summit League finals match with the expectation to win so the loss stung more than previous years.” 

Blackburne, having just finished her senior season, feels confident in her teammates in that they are going to take the women’s team even further in next years Summit League tournament. 

The men’s All Summit League Team included the talents of Parker Lawley and Henrique Pereria. The women’s team included Tacy Haws-Lay and Iasmin Rosa. 

Entering the tournament as the No. 2 seed, the women fought but fell to Fort Wayne Saturday morning 4-1. The Mastodons continued on to play Denver for the championship; there they dropped 4-0. 

Rosa and Ffion Davies also claimed the sole singles win 6-2, 6-1. 

The match suffered losses from Florencia Magni at No. 1 singles, Beatriz Souza at No. 5 singles and Haws-Lay at No. 6 singles. 

The doubles duo of Souza/ Rosa defeated Shustova/ Emily Richardson 8-5 at No. 2 doubles. Blackburne/Magni and Davies/Haws-Lay fell at 8-2 and 8-6, respectively. 

The SDSU women finished the season at a respectable 18- 8. Fort Wayne continued on to meet the Pioneers at 18-9. Also falling to Fort Wayne 4-1 was the Jackrabbit men. 

Contributing the sole point was Lawley with a 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 singles. 

Lawley/Andrea Boglic fell just shy of a No. 1 doubles win with an 8-7 loss to Fort Wayne’s Daniel Kang/Andres Cobos. The Connor Andrews/Karl Wangensten-Oye duo defeated SDSU’s H. Pereira/L. Pereira 8-5. 

Matches finished in order of No. 3, 1 (doubles) and at singles, No. 2, 1, 3 thus matches of H. Pereira, Gary Notkin, Notkin/Moreira were left unfinished. 

“We knew we were in for a battle on the men’s side,” head coach Michael Engdahl said. “We fought hard and can build off of this deal.” 

Blackburne, having just finished her senior season, feels confident in her teammates in that they are going to take the women’s team even further in next years Summit League tournament.