Grand Rapids, Mich. — The Aquinas women's tennis team closed out the regular season this past weekend with a 5-2 road win at Concordia and a 5-2 home loss to Lourdes.

The Saints (3-9, 1-5 WHAC) lone WHAC win of the season over Concordia helped them finish as the sixth best team in the conference and a more favorable seeding for the upcoming conference tournament this week. 

Aquinas, lacking players, only played with four against Concordia and five against Lourdes. Six student-athletes are required to avoid forfeiting points away.

Friday (Apr. 21): Aquinas 5, Concordia 2

Both of the points the Cardinals scored came from matches — No. 5 and 6 singles — that the Saints had to forfeit. Aquinas has been playing with five players for a majority of the season, but were hampered even more in this match because Joska Volder was unavailable. Yet, the slight inconvenience didn't matter in the end.

The Saints won both doubles matches to take that point.

The four singles matches that were played were also settled pretty quickly:

No. 1: Sofia Gomez def. Elle Fritcha, 6-1, 6-1.
No. 2: Carlota Arzabe def. Jadyn Hackmann, 6-0, 6-1.
No. 3: Mimi Pacheco def. Payton Woodruff, 6-0, 6-0.
No. 4: Alyssa Jack def. Sydney Orkisz, 6-1, 6-3.

Saturday (Apr. 22): Lourdes 5, Aquinas 2

The Saints pushed Lourdes to the limit on Saturday at Hope's DeWitt Tennis Center.

AQ came a couple points away from swinging the doubles point on offer. The Saints needed to win both matches after forfeiting the No. 3 matchup. Arzabe/Pacheco took the No. 2 matchup over Olivia Schoppa/Laura Ortiz, 6-2. But, Gomez/Volder lost a close No. 1 showdown against Cleo Moore/Mallory Schardt.

The Saints bounced back by winning two out of the four singles matches. Gomez defeat Schardt, 6-3, 6-2. And Arzabe took down Bella Chela, 6-4, 6-3.

Both Pacheco and Jack lost in three hard-fought sets.

All eyes now turn to the conference tournament being held Friday (Apr. 28) and Saturday (Apr. 29) at the Shadow Valley Tennis Club in Maumee, Ohio. The conference tournament is being host by Lourdes.

No. 6-seeded Aquinas will face No. 3 UNOH (5-10, 4-2 WHAC) in the first round at noon on Friday. Winner advances to the semifinals at 6 p.m. on Friday against the winner of No. 2 Indiana Tech against No. 7 Concordia.

The championship match is scheduled to be played Saturday at 10 a.m.