Box Score

MOBILE, Ala. — If all good things must come to an end, Southern Nazarene is glad that it was a winning streak that came to a halt and not the season. SNU's nine-match winning streak ran into one of the top team in the nation in NCAA No. 12 and NCCAA No. 1 Fresno Pacific who beat SNU 5-0 in the final match of pool play at the NCCAA National Championship.
 
The Crimson Storm (11-8) had already secured a spot in the semifinals Thursday morning, but a win over The Sunbirds (21-7-1) would have put SNU in the driver's seat.
 
FPU got a quick start by cruising at No. 1 and 2 doubles as Masha Andrianova and Marina Shipilova lost 8-1 to the No. 13 ranked doubles team in NCAA Division II. Natalia Moreno and Deisi Bolivar lost 8-2 at No. 2. Karina Kotova and Payton Bergmann nearly took away a point at No. 3 doubles as they led 8-7. FPU battled back to tie it at 8-8 and won the tiebreaker 7-5 and that gave Fresno the 3-0 lead heading into singles.
 
The Sunbirds put it away at No. 2 and No. 4 singles to secure the five points needed and stopped the match. Bolivar lost the first set at No. 2, 6-3, and was down 2-1 to No. 26 Petra Jurova before having to retire because of injury.  Shipilova also lost 6-2, 6-0 at No. 4 for the final loss.
 
Andrianova lost the first set 6-3 and was down 3-1 in the second to No. 18 Marie Boura while Natalia Moreno lost 6-3 in the first and was tied at 3-3 when it was called. Karina Kotova dropped her first set at No. 5, 6-3, and was up 1-0 and Kim Wiedemann was up 3-2 in the second at No. 6 after losing the first set 6-3.
 
The Crimson Storm though will have at least one more shot to get into the championship game when they play NCCAA No. 4 Palm Beach Atlantic, who upset NCAA No. 26 and NCCAA No. 2 Azusa Pacific, at 9 a.m. Thursday.