For the second consecutive season the No. 16 Northwest Missouri State men’s tennis team came to an end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament falling to No. 6 Abilene Christian, 5-0 Tuesday at the Eager Tennis Center.

The Bearcats (19-5) came into Tuesday’s match looking for their first regional title and trip to the Round of 16 since 2007. However, Northwest ran into a Wildcat (20-8) team playing its best tennis and fell one win shy of winning 20 matches. Of the eight losses for ACU, only one came at the hands of a NCAA Division II opponent playing a schedule heavily loaded with NCAA-DI teams.

With both teams battling strong winds gusting upwards to 30 mph it was the home team that found the right ingredients to pull off the win.

Opening doubles play ACU raced out to an early 3-0 lead by sweeping all three matches.

Since returning from injury, Calvin Patterson teamed with Luis Altimires to go undefeated on the second half of the season. However, on Tuesday the luck for the Bearcat duo ran out as Michael Morris and Guilherme Gesser battled to a 9-7 win at No. 3 doubles.

No. 2 doubles was just as hard fought however Northwest came out on the short end again falling 8-5, while the No. 1 doubles team of Mario Jakovljevic and Jose Ortega fell 8-4.

Needing only two points to claim the win heading into singles play, ACU turned to the No. 6 ranked singles player in the nation, Hans Hach. Hach defeated Patterson at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-2 to push the Wildcats one point away from the victory.

The Wildcats finished the match at No. 3 singles when Nick Plum won 6-4, 6-1 over Rafael Bugiga giving the top ranked team a 5-0 win.

The loss brings an end to a historic season for the Bearcats that saw head coach Mark Rosewell claim his 800th career win March 31 in Tulsa, Okla., a 5-0 win over Dallas Baptist.

It also marks the end of a stellar career for the Bearcats’ lone senior Calvin Patterson. Patterson finishes his career at Northwest with the second most singles wins in program history at 82-20 and fifth most career wins in doubles at 59-23.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team split with the Washburn University Ichabods Monday winning game one in walk-off fashion, 9-8, before falling 7-5 in game two.

With the split, Northwest now sits at 15-31 overall and 14-22 in conference play.  The game two loss officially eliminated the Bearcats from the post-season MIAA tournament.

Game one saw Jake Kretzer cap a six run, seventh inning rally by belting a walk-off grand slam to give the Bearcats the 9-8 win.

Washburn had jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the second before Northwest answered with two runs of their own in the third on Eric Swain’s tenth home run of the season.

The Ichabods extended their lead in the sixth plating two runs on two hits to take the 5-2 advantage.

Charlie Krueger would pinch-hit in the sixth and plate Kretzer to cut the Washburn lead to two.

Washburn rallied in the seventh extending their lead to 8-3 but the Bearcat bats would get hot in the home half of the seventh as Cameron Bedard would start the hitting with a double to right-center.  Eric Swain would follow with a single through the right side and then Eric McGlauflin would single plating Bedard cutting the Ichabod lead to 8-4.  Tyler Durant would reach base via a hit-by-pitch followed by a Steven Garber single scoring Swain.  With the bases loaded, Jake Kretzer would belt his seventh home run, and first grand slam, of the season to center field giving the Bearcats the 9-8 win.

McGlauflin and Kretzer led the Bearcats offensively in game one with each recording three hits.

Josh Parrish recorded the win on the mound for Northwest pitching two innings of relief.

The Ichabods again jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in game two plating three runs in the top of the second.

Northwest would get on the board in the fifth as Steven Garber, Landinn Eckhardt, JJ Baccari and Cameron Bedard would all record hits helping plate two runs for the Bearcats.

The Bearcats added a run in the sixth thanks to hits from McGaluflin and Garber tying the score at 3-3.

The Ichabods and Bearcats would trade runs in the seventh before the Ichabods would go ahead in the eighth plating three runs off of two hits to take the 7-4 lead.

Northwest would get one run back in the eighth and load the bases in the ninth but were unable to come from behind once again.

Carson Smith suffered the loss on the mound in game two pitching 7.2 innings allowing ten hits and striking out four.

Offensively, Eric Swain and Garber recorded two this apiece in the loss.

Up Next: The Bearcats will host the Lincoln Blue Tigers in a four-game series to conclude the 2012 season.  First pitch of game one is set for Friday at 2 p.m. from Bearcat Field.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Northwest Missouri State head women’s basketball coach, Mark Kellogg, has announced his first signee for the 2012-13 season with the addition of Monique Stevens from Southeast Community College in Beatrice, Nebraska.

Stevens is the first to sign with the Bearcats in the new Kellogg era as the All-America guard led the Storm in scoring and assists the last two years at Southeast (SCC). She led the Storm to a District Championship and first ever national tournament appearance as a sophomore averaging 13.0 points per game and 5.0 assists.

“We are thrilled to add Monique to the Bearcat family,” Kellogg said. “Monique is our first signee this spring and she will really help solidify our point guard position. We hope that her experience at the junior college level will translate quickly at Northwest. She has a tremendous feel as a point guard and she plays with a great passion defensively.”

Along with leading SCC to an eighth place finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Tournament, she set the school record for most assists in a career. She earned All-Conference and All-Region accolades and was also named to the NJCAA All-Tournament Team.

Prior to SCC, Stevens prepped in Australia at Catholic College – Wodonga in Wodonga, Victoria, Australia, where she helped the Wolves to a third place state finish. She won three consecutive gold medals at the Australian National Schools Basketball Tournament and represented Victoria Country at the Australian Junior Country Cup where her under-18 team captured the silver medal.

Stevens joins Tember Schechinger who was signed in early November from IKM-Manning High in Manilla, Iowa. The pair of guards will join a Bearcat squad that lost two 1,000-point guards in Abby Henry and Shelly Martin.

— NWMSU Sports Information —