PERRYSBURG, Ohio -- For the second time this season, the Western Michigan women's tennis team gave Mid-American Conference regular season champion Miami its toughest league test, but came up short, 4-0, in the finals of the 2009 MAC Women's Tennis Championships at the Perrysburg Tennis Center. For the third day in a row, the event was moved indoors due to high winds in the Bowling Green area.

The No. 3 Broncos (21-8) finished with the most wins in the conference and advanced to the tournament final for the fifth season in a row. Western Michigan was represented on the all-tournament team by seniors Kerstin Pahl and Ashley Moccia.

"I can't say enough about our seniors and what they have meant to this program," head coach Betsy Kuhle said. "Today was another example of the heart and dedication they've exhibited for four years at Western Michigan. Ashley was in the hospital until 1:30 a.m. last night and was still able to answer the bell today and could have won her singles match and what more can you say about Kerstin. All of her records speak for themselves, and today, like she has in every match all season, she left everything she had on the court. It's going to be very difficult for us to replace Ashley Moccia and Kerstin Pahl."  

Moccia finishes her career 26th in all-time wins with 146 victories, while Pahl holds several records. She is the MAC leader in career singles wins (114) and co-leader in career overall wins (232) and leads WMU with 118 career doubles victories. This season, her 66 total wins is a new school record and her 34 singles wins ties the school record.

The top-seeded RedHawks (15-6) captured the opening doubles point by picking up wins at No. 3 (8-2) and No. 1 (8-4), while also leading at No. 2. Miami came back out and took control of singles with victories at No. 4 and No. 2 to go up, 3-0. Pahl fell behind by a set and 3-0 at No. 1 singles, but wouldn't go down easily. She scraped and clawed her way back into the match, 5-4, but Miami was able to escape with the win and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

While the final score may have been 4-0, the Broncos may have been on their way to another 4-3 result against the RedHawks.

The Broncos' Yumi Matsuto led the way by winning her first set at No. 6 singles, 6-0. Ashley Moccia fell behind, 4-0, in the opening stages of her first set, but battled all of the way back to win the first set at No. 3, 7-5. Sophomore Amanda Moccia lost her first set, but was on the way to forcing a decisive third set with a 5-3 lead at No. 5 singles. Unfortunately, all three of those matches were abandoned after the RedHawks clinched the fourth point.

#75/No. 1 Miami 4, No. 3 Western Michigan 0
Apr 26, 2009 at Perrysburg, Ohio (Perrysburg Tennis Center)