GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. – The Western New Mexico University women's tennis team fought past a tough Colorado Mesa team to win the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, 5-2, Sunday to receive the automatic bid into the NCAA Championships.


In doubles, Western New Mexico University (WNMU) cruised at the top flight behind Ganna Tiurina (Kiev, Ukraine/M.M. Gromov #227) and Ashley Newell (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado) to come away with the 8-3 win. The other two doubles matches went right down to the wire. At No. 3, WNMU pulled out a close 9-7 victory behind Claudia Osuna (Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico/Tec Milenio ) and Marie Monier (Saint Etienne, France/St Paul Forez Montbrison), while Diamond Morrill (Carlsbad, NM/Carlsbad) and Doris Berberic (Lower Hutt, New Zealand/Hutt Valley High School) went into a tiebreaker at No. 2 before coming up on the short end of an 8-9 (5-7) loss.


In singles, Tiurina dominated at the top flight with a 6-0, 6-1 victory. Needing just two more points, the Lady Mustangs would get them at No. 2 and No. 4. Newell opened with a 6-1 win at No. 2, but would drop the second set, 4-6, before closing strong with a 6-2 win. Monier controlled her first set, 6-3 and then battled through a difficult second set before a 7-5 win to close out the victory. The only other match to finish was Colorado Mesa's win at No. 5 defeating Morrill, 2-6, 3-6. Osuna was in a third set match at No. 3, while Davida Aragon (Arenas Valley, NM/Cobre High School) at No. 6 was in control ahead a set when play was stopped.


With the win, the Lady Mustangs won both the RMAC regular season and tournament titles in the same season for the first time in program history and have now won the tournament title in back-to-back years. They will also receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Championships that will take place this coming weekend at a site to be determined. The NCAA selection show takes place on Tuesday, April 23. Currently, Abilene Christian is the top seed in the South Central Region, while Midwestern State was the two seed entering the weekend. Abilene Christian won the Lone Star Tournament title to all but assure them of the top seed, while Midwestern State fell to Abilene Christian in the conference tournament.