Women's Tennis Falls Twice on Senior Day

Men lose to Edgewood

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (10/05/2025) — The Monmouth College women's tennis team dropped a pair of Midwest Conference matches on Saturday while the men lost a non-conference tilt on Friday. The women fell 7-0 to Cornell and 6-1 to Grinnell while the men lost 7-0 to Edgewood.

WOMEN

Ivana Stefanova (Streamwood, Illinois) and Natalie Labicki (Antioch, Illinois) split their two doubles matches with a 6-2 loss against Grinnell and a 6-4 win at No. 1 doubles against Cornell. At No. 2 doubles, Kimber Calvert (Paris, Illinois) and Natalie Holst (East Moline, Illinois) lost 6-at 1 against Cornell and 6-0 against Grinnell. Alayna McKinley (Rock Island, Illinois) and Tiah Riggs (Vincennes, Indiana) fell at No. 3 doubles 7-5 against Grinnell and 6-0 against Cornell.

Stefanova had the lone singles win of the day as she won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 1 against Grinnell. She fell 6-1, 6-2 against the Rams. Labicki won the opening set but lost a third-set tiebreaker against Cornell and she lost 7-6 (2), 6-4 against Cornell at No. 2 singles. Calvert fell at No. 3 singles 6-1, 6-0 to Grinnell and 6-1, 6-2 to Cornell and Holst lost at No. 4 6-0, 6-1 and 6-0, 6-2. McKinley lost 6-0, 6-0 and 6-1, 6-3 at No. 5 and Riggs lost 6-1, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6.

"We competed well today in some pretty windy conditions," said head coach Brian Dahlstrom. "We did a good job of adjusting to some big hitters and made them hit their shots but the experience against us was too much. Labicki fell just short in the tie breaker from a big senior day win."

MEN

In Friday afternoon's home match, the men lost to Edgewood 7-0. Matthew Savage (Washington, Illinois) and Antonio Perez (St. George, Utah) lost 6-2 at No. 1 doubles whole Macaden Sepich (Mackinaw, Illinois) and Caden DeJong (Freeport, Illinois) lost 6-4 at No. 2. Alfonso Mares (Oak Lawn, Illinois) and Ashur Carthan (Homewood, Illinois) lost 6-2 at No. 3.

Savage lost 6-1, 6-1 at No. 1 singles with Perez losing 6-3, 6-0 at No. 2. Sepich lost 6-1, 6-1 at No. 3 and DeJong lost 6-0, 6-3 at No. 4. Mares lost 6-3, 6-2 at No. 5 and Carthan lost 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Stefanova is the fifth player with 25 career singles wins in Monmouth history ... Only four have won 30 matches ... She also has 24 doubles wins, tied with Holly Trotter for sixth in MC history ... Labicki has 28 career doubles wins ... Both Labicki and Stefanova have 49 combined wins, tied for fifth in Monmouth history ,,, Labicki was honored before the match as the Scots lone senior ... The women play at Ripon and Lawrence next Saturday ... The men's team is done until the spring season and they are next scheduled to play on Feb. 21 indoors against Illinois Wesleyan and Principia.