FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Albanese, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5302
Complete Results

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. (Oct. 10, 2009) -- Fueled by six top three finishers, the North Central College women's tennis team turned in its best finish at the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin Championships in school history, placing third at the two-day event held at the Evergreen Racquet Club. Jessica Ignarski highlighted the Cardinals' efforts, finishing second in both doubles and singles.

Wheaton College won the team title for the fifth straight year, amassing 72 points while Carthage College finished second with 55. North Central's 39 points was good for third while Augustana College was fourth with 26 points. Illinois Wesleyan University finished fifth with a score of 24 while Elmhurst College and Millikin University finished sixth and seventh, respectively.

Ignarski cruised in her opening two matches at No. 6 singles, topping Elmhurst's Emily Tarlini, 6-1, 6-1, in the opening round before taking down Stephanie Zundl of Carthage, 6-0, 6-1, in the semifinals. Ignarksi would finish as the runner-up at No. 6 after falling, 6-1, 6-0, to Wheaton's Kirsten Boyer.

Alicia DeGrado concluded the weekend 3-1, finishing third overall at the No. 2 singles position while Elizabeth Micheletti, Allison Paschold and Abigail Conover all recorded third place showings, playing at the No. 3 through No. 5 spots.

In doubles, Ignarski and her partner Conover received an opening round bye in No. 3 action before edging past Carthage's Amanda Bizub and Ashley Morgan in the semifinals. The tandem pulled out the 7-6 (7-4) tiebreaker win in the opening set before picking up the 6-3 second set victory to advance to the championship. Ignarski and Conover finished runner-up after falling, 6-1, 6-0, to a squad from Wheaton.

North Central's third place finish is the highest in school history, the Cardinals previous best finish was in both 2007 and 2008 when the team placed fourth.

The Championships concluded the team's fall season, North Central finished 11-3 in dual matches and posted a 3-3 mark in CCIW duals.