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TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The No. 17-ranked Northeastern State women's tennis team will face No. 13 St. Mary's in the NCAA Championship Round of 16 at 4 p.m. May 13 at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Center in Surprise, Arizona.
 
The RiverHawks (20-5), winners of the NCAA Central Region 2 Championship, have advanced to the national finals for the third-straight year and for the 10th time in school history.
 
In order to reach Arizona, Northeastern State had to go through Augustana (5-0) and Nebraska-Kearney (5-1) in the first two rounds of competition. The RiverHawks also won the 2015 MIAA Regular Season Championship and have won 14 of their last 16 matches.
 
The top of NSU's singles lineup features a pair of nationally-ranked juniors in No. 36 Kristina Savchenkov and No. 39 Patricia Husakova. Savchenkov owns an 18-5 record this spring and was recently named the 2015 ITA Central Region Player to Watch. Husakova is 21-2. The duo comprise the nation's No. 10-ranked doubles team. They are 21-2 together and have played all their matches at the No. 1 position.
 
Other notables in Northeastern State's singles lineup are freshman Molly Worden and sophomore Valeriia Efimenko, who are 17-5 and 13-3, respectively.
 
The matchup with the Rattlers will be the first since Feb. 28, 2013, when the RiverHawks earned a narrow 5-4 triumph in San Antonio. NSU will be looking to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals for the first time since 2004.
 
SCOUTING THE RATTLERS
St. Mary's owns a dominant 20-1 record this season and has not lost to a non-Division I school in 2015. The Rattlers won both the South Central Region Championship and the Heartland Conference Championship.
 
StMU is making its second-straight trip to the NCAA Championship Round of 16 and the second ever as a program.  
 
The Rattlers are led by No. 31 Mariana Rong, who owns a 17-1 record in singles competition. No. 43-ranked Cristina Lopez is 16-1, while Kaylin Kruseman is 15-1 and Jamie Lee Denton is 14-2.
 
The doubles tandem of Rong and Lopez are the nation's No. 7-ranked duo, while Kruseman and Denton comprise the No. 21-ranked pair. Lopez/Rong are 17-2 this season, while Denton/Kruseman are 19-1 and are riding an 18-match win streak.
 
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