INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team earned a 4-0 victory over Shaw University in the opening round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament Monday at the Maple Street Courts on the campus of Indiana University (Pa.).
 
Monday's victory improves The Rock's record to 14-9 overall and advances SRU to the second round of the NCAA Tournament where it will meet Indiana University (Pa.) – which earned a shutout of its own against Bloomsburg University earlier in the day – 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Greensburg Racquet Club in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
 
SRU, which entered the match as the third seed out of the Atlantic Region, has now won its first round NCAA Tournament match in each of the last four years.
 
Shaw, the region's sixth seed, ends its year with a 16-7 record.
 
SRU registered its national tournament victory after earning the doubles point followed by wins in the top three singles flights. In doubles play, The Rock's top two flights laid the groundwork for the postseason shutout.
 
Slippery Rock's second flight pairing of Amaia Balaguer Brau and Tina Slovak gave SRU the early momentum with a 6-0 sweep of Marija Ristanovic and Hafsa Sanhaji for what was their 18th win of the season. Individually, the result marked the 96th win in Slovak's Slippery Rock career.
 
Alissia Kivi and Nicole Kempton – the 38th-ranked doubles team in the nation – proceeded to clinch the first point of the match for The Rock by way of a 6-3 win out of the top flight over Serena Teluwo and Prerana Koirala.
 
With the first team point of the day clinched, the third flight contest that featured Dari Sakhanova and Georgie Lancaster vs. Camilla Angiani-Mortino and Veronika Phillippova was halted with The Rock's veteran pairing holding a 5-2 edge and on the verge of a win of their own.
 
Any thoughts of a rally in singles play by Shaw was quickly put to rest as SRU's top three entries all posted consecutive convincing wins to send The Rock into the Round of 32.
 
Just as she has done in each of her previous nine completed matches, Kivi once again grabbed a win out of the second flight courtesy of a 6-0, 6-1 triumph versus Teluwo. Kivi's freshman resume now includes a stellar 23-7 singles record.
 
Kempton proceeded to rack up her 19th win of the 2025 season all the while pushing SRU closer to the team victory when she bested Ristanovic 6-1, 6-1 out of the third flight.
 
44th-ranked Balaguer Brau put the finishing touches on The Rock's victory in 6-2, 6-2 fashion against Koirala from the first flight. She is now 27-8 overall and 18-5 from the first flight this season.
 
Balaguer Brau and Kivi enter Tuesday's match against IUP with winning streaks of 14 and 10 matches, respectively.
 
Much like the doubles portion of the match, the halted matches in singles competition were all tending The Rock's way. Sakhanova and Lancaster both took the first set in the fifth and sixth flight contests while Slovak held a 2-0 lead in the second set following a close setback in the opener in the fourth flight.
 
Tuesday's match against IUP will be the third of the year between The Rock and Crimson Hawks. While Indiana is 2-0 against SRU so far this season, the wins have hardly been easy as both the regular season match and PSAC Tournament championship bout were narrow 4-3 decisions.
 
All told, Slippery Rock and Indiana (Pa.) will be meeting in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time.
 




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