Contact: Alex Mielcarz, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, ajmielcarz@noctrl.edu
NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Oct. 14, 2026) – The North Central College women's tennis team dropped its fifth consecutive dual on Wednesday, falling to North Park University 4-3 at Naperville North High School. Berkley Klarich won her third straight singles match, while Kate Herlihy saw her singles winning streak extend to four matches. Alexandra Zaskowski broke a five-match skid, earning her second conference victory of the year.
North Park (6-4, 5-2 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW)) earned the doubles point with wins in number two and number three doubles. The duo of Klarich and Herlihy were able to salvage the sweep, however, earning a 6-3 win from the number one spot in the lineup, improving to 3-4 on the year as a team.
The Vikings clinched the match early, earning the first three wins of the day in singles. The Vikings defeated Abigail Heintz in the number six match (6-0, 6-0), Anais Gerard in the number four match (6-2, 6-1) and Meghan McSweeney in the number three contest (6-3, 6-4).
North Central (1-6, 1-6) earned its points with wins from Zaskowski, Herlihy and Klarich.
Zaskowski earned her second CCIW singles victory of the season with a 6-5, 6-4 straight-sets victory in the number five match. In the first set, Zaskowski fell behind early as her opponent jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Zaskowski kept her cool and rallied all the way back, winning six of the next seven matches to win the opening set 6-4. Zaskowski had runs of four straight games and two straight games to pull off the come-from-behind win.
The second set was a much tighter affair. Zaskowski and her opponent played to a 4-4 tie after the Vikings' student-athlete won consecutive games to erase a 4-2 Zaskowski lead. Once again, Zaskowski remained calm under pressure, breaking her opponent's serve to go up 5-4 before clinching the point for the Cardinals in the ensuing game to win 6-4, 6-4.
Herlihy remained the hottest player on the team, as her overall singles winning streak improved to four matches and her CCIW singles streak expanded to six. Herlihy dropped the opening set 7-5 before bouncing back to take the second set 6-4, forcing a tiebreak.
In the decisive third set, the pair played tightly to a 7-7 tie. Herlihy proceeded to break the tie and pull away to win the point for North Central in the number two slot of the lineup by winning three consecutive points to take the tiebreak 10-7.
With the win, Herlihy now has a team-best record of 9-3 in singles and a team-leading 6-1 record in CCIW play.
The third and final point for the Cardinals came from the top spot in the singles lineup. Klarich, who was named the CCIW Women's Tennis Player of the Week this morning, took home a three-set victory to establish a three-match winning streak in singles.
Klarich dropped a nail-biter in the first set, 7-6, before responding with a tight 7-5 win of her own to force a third set.
In the super set, Klarich won five of the first seven points to jump out to a 5-2 advantage. She'd use that cushion to keep her opponent at bay, leading 6-4 and 8-6 before eventually winning the tiebreak 10-7, earning North Central its third point of the afternoon.
North Central concludes its conference regular season on Monday, as it hosts Elmhurst University in a makeup of the postponed match from September 14. The match will be played at Wheaton College and begin at 7 p.m.
