VIRGINIA, Minn. -- The Bemidji State University tennis team traveled to Virginia, Minn. for a pair of neutral-site NSIC match-up Feb. 20-21, but failed to come out of the weekend with any victories. The Beavers dropped a tight match to Minnesota Duluth Friday, 6-3, and were swept by St. Cloud State, 9-0 Saturday.

BSU opened the weekend of competition in a hole dropping its top two doubles matches to UMD. The team of Sabrina Okeson and Justine Scheller salvaged a point at No. 3 doubles, defeating Emma Bartels and Katie Baasch, 8-6, to propel BSU into singles play trailing 2-1.

The Beavers came charging back as singles play got underway, getting wins from Shaylin Prout out of the No. 1 position (6-2, 6-2) and Deanie Hatch (6-3, 6-2) at No. 2 singles, but that was all BSU would muster. UMD would pull out a 7-5, 7-5 victory at No. 3 singles and Drew DeCorsey gained a No. 4 singles win over Claudia Bellew in a tie break (6-1, 4-6, 10-7).

Sunday the Beavers ran into a buzz saw in St. Cloud State. The Huskies put BSU in a 3-0 hole after winning all three doubles matches. Prout won the first set of her No. 1 singles match with El O’Brien, 6-1, but dropped the second set, 6-1, and was edged in a tie break, 10-8. Caley Westin suffered the same fate at No. 3 singles. The Virginia, Minn. native won her first set 6-3, dropped a tight second set, 7-5, in front of her hometown fans, but ran out of gas in the tie breaker, 10-3.

The Beavers, now 0-5 overall and 0-4 in NSIC play, will open their home season Feb. 28 with a 9 a.m. match versus University of Sioux Falls. The team will also host Augustana College at 9 a.m. Sunday with a matinee versus University of Minnesota Crookston slated for 1 p.m. Sunday. All three matches will take place at BSU’s Gillett Recreation-Fitness Center.

For more information on the Bemidji State women’s tennis program, follow the Beavers on Twitter (@BSUBeavers), like them on Facebook (facebook.com/BSUBeavers) or sign up for the TXTUpdates from BSUBeavers.com text-messaging system through the "Multimedia" pull down menu on the main page of BSUBeavers.com.

Nestled in Northern Minnesota’s wooded region and located on the shore of Lake Bemidji, Bemidji State University sponsors 15 varsity athletic programs with NCAA Division I men’s and women’s hockey membership in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, while its 13 NCAA Division II programs hold membership in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).

--bsu—