RIPON, Wis. - The Ripon College Women's Tennis team completed their 2018 regular season on Sunday, defeating Beloit College 6-3, before falling to Midwest Conference champion Lake Forest by a score of 9-0. That gives the Red Hawks a season record of 8-4, which is their most wins in a season since 2003 when the team went 11-4, and puts them in fifth place in the MWC standings, finishing just one game shy of qualifying for the MWC Team Championships.

In the first match of the day, Ripon (8-4, 5-4 MWC) won all three doubles matches and three of the six singles matches against Beloit (3-9, 2-7 MWC). In doubles play, Brianna Bembenek and Hannah Ryback teamed up to win 8-5 at the top flight. Samantha Kiesner and Morgan Makar won their number two match 8-5, while MacKenzie Warner and Carly Wesner won 8-7 at the third flight. In singles play, Ryback won at the number one position 6-0, 6-2, while Carly Wesner was victorious at the number five flight, 6-4, 6-4. Sarah Weber also won her singles match at the sixth flight by a score of 6-3, 7-5.

Ripon faced a much tougher opponent in their second match of the day, as Lake Forest (12-0, 9-0 MWC) remained undefeated this season by winning all three doubles matches by a combined score of 24-5, and all six singles matches.

"Considering we had many players playing on less than a full tank due to being sick, it was a grind it out victory over Beloit," Ripon Head Coach Rob Oertel said. "I'm proud that we finished 5-4 in the MWC because that is a big jump compared to last year's 1-8 record."

The Red Hawks will now prepare for next weekend's MWC Championships at Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wis. The two-day event will begin Saturday at 11 a.m.