Slippery Rock University Athletics

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - The No. 28 Slippery Rock University women's tennis team earned the right to play for a league title after defeating East Stroudsburg University, 4-0, Friday in the semifinals of the 2026 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament at the Burt Reese Tennis Center in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
 
Slippery Rock will meet No. 24 Indiana University (Pa.), who defeated Bloomsburg in Friday's other semifinal, in Saturday's conference championship match. The Rock and Crimson Hawks will be meeting in the PSAC Tournament finals for the fifth consecutive year.
 
While IUP earned a tight 4-3 decision over The Rock earlier in the regular as well as in last year's PSAC Tournament championship match, it was SRU that took the last postseason contest between the two schools by way of a 4-3 NCAA Tournament victory in 2025.
 
In addition to pushing The Rock to another conference title match, Friday's victory over East Stroudsburg improved SRU's record to 14-3 overall on the year. The Warriors dropped to 19-5 in 2025-26 after the loss.
 
Prior to Friday's match Slippery Rock's Nicole Kempton was named the PSAC Women's Tennis Champion Scholar. Initiated for the 2011-12 academic year, the PSAC Champion Scholar Awards are modeled after the NCAA's Elite 90 awards and honor the student-athlete with the top GPA who is competing at the site of each of the PSAC's 23 team championship finals.
 
Kempton, who holds a perfect 4.0 GPA as a public health major, is the second member of the Slippery Rock women's tennis program to have earned the award joining past SRU women's tennis recipients Lindsay Fadden (2021) and Viola Lugmayr (2019).
 
As was the case in The Rock's quarterfinal victory over West Chester, Slippery Rock opened its semifinal bout by gaining the doubles points courtesy of wins out of the second and third flights.
 
Nadia Rodewald and Dari Sakhanova got The Rock going early via a 6-0 shutout of Bega Gotor and Nia Vivas Montoya from the third flight, which improved their record to a practically flawless 22-2 this season.  
 
The veteran second flight pairing of Amaia Balaguer Brau and Tina Slovak officially claimed the first team point of the match for SRU as they bested Theresa Bauer and Lea Stefanovic in 6-2 fashion. Slovak and Balaguer Brau hold the longest winning streak of any Rock pairing of seven matches which has improved their record to a stellar 19-4.
 
With the doubles decision already decided the first flight match between The Rock's Alissia Kivi / Nicole Kempton and ESU's Jenna Kastell and Ariel Kelsick was halted.
 
Slippery Rock wasted little time making its way to the PSAC Tournament championship match as it took victories from top and bottom of its lineup to finish out the win.  
 
Balaguer Brau logged the first singles result of the match in the form of a 6-1, 6-2 triumph over Stefanovic. Now a winner of five consecutive decisions, Balaguer Brau joins Kivi as 20-match winners for Slippery Rock in 2025-26 at 20-7.
 
Following Balaguer Brau's win, Rodewald stretched her winning streak to 13 straight matches by downing Bauer 6-2, 6-1 in the sixth flight. Rodewald's winning streak, which has upped her record to 18-6, is tied for the ninth longest in documented program history.
 
Slippery Rock officially clinched the match when Sakhanova posted a 6-0, 6-0 shutout over Audrey Conover from the fifth flight. The match-deciding win was Sakhanova's 16th of the year.
 
SRU and IUP will play their PSAC Tournament championship match 1 p.m. Saturday at the Burt Reese Tennis Center in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
 
While both teams are locks to make the NCAA Tournament, Saturday's winner will almost assuredly earn the top seed out of the Atlantic Region in next week's NCAA Tournament while the runner-up will more than likely enter the national tournament as the region's second seed.





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