Pack's season ends after upset from Western New Mexico

RMAC Quarterfinal: Western New Mexico 5, CSU-Pueblo 2

KEARNEY, Neb. - The ThunderWolves saw bright hopes of a would-be conference championship go up in premature flames Friday as the third-seeded Pack fell 5-2, upset by six-seed Western New Mexico in the quarterfinals of the RMAC Women's Tennis Tournament.

Forced to play indoors because of rain and sleet ravaged the outdoor tennis courts at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, the two teams played indoors until the first team reached five wins to clinch the victory.

With doubles coming first, the Pack's premature fate was handed down almost immediately as the Mustangs took all three doubles matches, forcing the Pack to win at least five of six singles matches to get the win.  In a turn of events quite different from those when the ThunderWolves defeated the Mustangs 7-2 on Apr. 5, the Pack's number one doubles combo of Jamie Raun and Julie Wainwright fell 8-5 to WNMU's Emily Campman and Stephanie Shelton by an 8-5 score.  In their first meeting, Raun and Wainwright barely eeked out a win, 9-8.  

Another combo that got the win in the first meeting, the Pack's number-three combo of Tiffany Talmadge and Val Boughton, had their previous win turned on its ear, as well.  After posting an 8-4 win Apr. 5, Talmadge and Boughton lost to Elisa Owen and Madison Bruton by an 8-3 score.

The ThunderWolves came in to the tournament with a 5-6 record, dwarfing the Mustangs' 3-14 mark coming in.  But all that was for naught Friday.

"It was just a few points here and there that hurt us," Pack coach Tom Durham said.  "We didn't play as well as we could have in doubles, and the one or two points in those matches really made the difference."

The Pack closes its season with a 5-7 record on the same day that it was announced that three members of the tennis team had made the all-RMAC team as second-team selections: Raun, Ashley Erickson and Boughton were selected, as was the doubles combo of Raun and Wainwright.