SURPRISE, Ariz. - The No. 28 Slippery Rock University women's tennis team's season came to an end Tuesday following a 4-1 loss to No. 4 Nova Southeastern University in the Round of 16 of the 2026 NCAA Tournament at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex in Surprise, Arizona.
Slippery Rock closes its season with a 16-4 overall record, including a 16-3 showing against fellow Division II competition. The Rock's 2026 season not only marked the program's second consecutive trip to the Round of 16, it also saw SRU win a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference title and earn the top seed out of the Atlantic Region for the NCAA Tournament.
SRU's 16 team wins are tied for the seventh most in a single-season in program history.
The highlight of the day for Slippery Rock came from the No. 1 singles flight where
Amaia Balaguer Brau defeated Kristyna Hranacova, who entered Tuesday's match as the top-ranked singles athlete in Division II. Balaguer Brau, a senior, made her final collegiate match one to remember as she bested the nation's top-ranked athlete in 6-2, 6-3 fashion.
Balaguer Brau leaves The Rock as a three-time PSAC West Athlete of the Year and ranked 10th on Slippery Rock's career singles wins list (124). The 2026 ITA Atlantic Region Senior Player of the Year, Balaguer Brau ends the season with a 23-7 overall record and a winner in her final eight collegiate matches. Additionally, her 69 career singles wins are the sixth most in program history.
The Sharks earned the first point of the match in doubles play following wins out of the first and third flights.
In a meeting of nationally ranked pairings, the first flight match between No. 1 Hranacova and Katja Markus of Nova Southeastern and The Rock's
Nicole Kempton and
Alissia Kivi – the 41st ranked team in Division II – went to the Sharks in a 6-2 decision.
The other completed doubles match saw Chloe Henderson and Noemie Dadoun best
Nadia Rodewald and
Dari Sakhanova out of the third flight, 6-3.
In addition to finishing the season among the nation's best in the ITA rankings, Kempton and Kivi also close the year holding a 21-12 overall record. The duo will go down as the second winningest doubles team in program history with a career record of 47-20.
In their lone year as partners, Sakhanova and Rodewald boasted a stellar 23-3 record, which is tied for 16th on the program's career record for doubles pairings.
Nova Southeastern finished off the team victory in the singles portion of the match with wins from the fourth, fifth and sixth flights.
The Sharks captured the first two singles points of the match as Noemie Dadoun defeated
Tina Slovak (6-0, 6-0) and Boegner bested Sakhanova (6-0, 6-1) from the fourth and fifth flights, respectively.
Two of The Rock's three seniors on this year's roster, Sakhanova and Slovak both leave SRU as all-conference award winners and ranked among the program's best in terms of career victories. Sakhanova's ends her career slotted sixth on SRU's career wins ledger (140) with Slovak not far behind in 11th (123).
While Balaguer Brau broke up the string of Nova Southeastern victories with her first-flight triumph, NSU sealed the win as Amina Sagadiyeva defeated Rodewald (6-1, 6-1) in the sixth flight.
The 2025-26 season was a great inaugural campaign at The Rock for Rodewald, who transferred to SRU prior the start of the season from Grand Valley State and promptly went 19-7 in singles competition while winning 14 consecutive matches prior to Tuesday.
The two unfinished singles matchups Tuesday saw Kivi and Kempton go toe-to-toe with a pair of nationally ranked opponents.
In the second flight, Kivi, who is ranked 74th in Division II in her own right, met No. 41 Markus. After losing the opening set 6-3, Kivi only trailed Markus 5-4 at the time of stoppage in the second. Just a sophomore, Kivi went 23-4 this year and has collected 93 wins in her brief Slippery Rock career.
Kempton played No. 27 Chloe Henderson tight in the first set, losing a close 6-4 contest, before the second set was stopped with Henderson leading 4-0. Already up to 118 wins in her career following a second straight 20-win singles season, Kempton enters her senior year in 2027 as The Rock's most experienced returning athlete.
Nova Southeastern – the fourth ranked team in the nation and national runners-up a season ago – improve to 19-7 in 2026 following the win and will now meet Augustana University in the NCAA Tournament quarterfinals 6 p.m. Wednesday.
Slippery Rock, which has compiled 22 NCAA Tournament appearances including eight consecutive trips in the national tournament, figures to once again be in position for another strong year in 2027 as SRU returns a strong core of underclassmen along with a promising incoming recruiting class.
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