CALIFORNIA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team earned a 7-0 road victory over California (Pa.) Wednesday at the Roadman Park Tennis Complex.
 
Wednesday's match served as The Rock's regular season finale. Slippery Rock heads into the postseason with a near maximum amount of momentum as SRU has now registered five consecutive shutouts which has bolstered its record to 11-8 overall and 5-1 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division competition.
 
Slippery Rock's shutout of the Vulcans not only ensured the program of its seventh consecutive winning season, it also guaranteed SRU a home contest in the opening-round of the upcoming PSAC Tournament. The Rock will host the Vulcans in a rematch of Wednesday's encounter 4 p.m. April 29 at the SRU Tennis Courts quarterfinal play.
 
The Vulcans saw their record drop to 14-6 overall and 4-2 in the PSAC West following the loss.
 
Slippery Rock set the tone for Wednesday's victory when it took the doubles point for the 14th time in 19 matches this year.
 
The Rock clinched the first point of the day courtesy of back-to-back 6-0 wins out of the second and third flights as Amaia Balaguer Brau and Tina Slovak bested Diletta Maria Mungo and Garance Laforet while Dari Sakhanova and Georgie Lancaster downed Lilli Schreiber and Anika Hedrich.
 
SRU's top doubles team of Alissia Kivi and Nicole Kempton, which climbed to No. 35 in this week's ITA national doubles rankings, rounded out doubles play against the Vulcans with a 6-4 victory over Teddi Isherwood and Leandra Guldimann.
 
All three Rock doubles teams have been stellar in 2025. Kempton and Kivi enter the PSAC Tournament with a 24-6 record. Slovak and Balaguer Brau are on a seven-match winning streak and a near flawless 15-3. Lancaster and Sakhanova have posted four consecutive victories as well to push its record to 9-7.
 
Kempton kicked off The Rock's singles dominance by way of a 6-2, 6-1 victory against Guldimann out of the third flight for what was her eighth straight win. The sophomore is now 18-8 overall and 13-3 from the third flight.
 
Lancaster then continued her strong finish to what's been a quality four-career with a 6-1, 6-2 win from the sixth flight over Hedrich. The win was her 12th of the year and ninth in as many matches.
 
Sakhanova provided The Rock with the official match-clinching decision as she defeated Schreiber 6-0, 6-2 in fifth-flight competition.
 
In addition to being her fifth consecutive triumph and vaulting her record to 18-9 in 2025, the win marked the 98th victory in her Slippery Rock career. Two more wins this season would make Sakhanova the 15th athlete in program history win 100 matches (singles+doubles).
 
While the team victory was already assured, SRU closed the day by earning wins from the first, second and fourth flights as it polished off the program's first string of five straight shutouts since 2001.
 
In the closest match of the day, Balaguer Brau beat Isherwood in the first flight 6-4, 4-6, 11-9. Balaguer Brau, the 35th-ranked singles athlete in the nation, trailed the tiebreaker before rallying to clinch her team-leading 10th consecutive win. Balaguer Brau heads to the PSAC Tournament holding a 23-8 record.
 
Following a 6-1 win in the opening set, Kivi outlasted Mungo in the second (7-5) to register her 20th win in her first 27 collegiate matches.
 
The Rock's fourth flight win featured Slovak defeating Laforet 6-0, 6-4. The junior, who is also nearing 100 victories following career wins No. 91 and No. 92 Wednesday, is 12-9 this year.
 
Slippery Rock will welcome California for Tuesday's PSAC Tournament match as the third-ranked team in the Atlantic Region.
 
While SRU has very likely already played its way into the NCAA Tournament field, a conference tournament victory over the Vulcans all but assures that The Rock would earn one of the four at-large berths into the NCAA Tournament if they don't win the PSAC Tournament and earn the automatic bid that accompanies the conference championship.



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