Park Forest, Ill.---  The University of St. Francis women's tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision to NCAA II Purdue University Northwest at the Park Forrest Tennis Club on Friday afternoon.
 

Purdue Northwest jumped out to an early 1-0 lead after claiming identical 6-2 victories in each of the three doubles contests.  
 

In singles play, Nikkie Christiansen (JR/Rockford, Ill.) presented the biggest challenge to the Pride at No.3. She captured the only set of the afternoon for the Saints, forcing a tiebreaker against PNW's Patricia Dizon. Christiansen would ultimately fall 10-8 in the tiebreaker and come up on the short end of a 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8) contest.
 

Denisse Lizano (SO/Quito, Ecuador) also came up short 6-3, 6-2 at No. 2 singles, while Maria Kuzminskaya (SR/Saint Petersburg, Russia) dropped a 6-0, 6-0 decision at No.1.
 

Kiana Sikich (FR/Mokena, Ill.), Yashleen Kheterphal (SR/Bhilai, India), and Alyssa Larsen (SR/Morris, Ill.) rounded out the singles lineup for the Saints with all three dropping 6-1, 6-1 decisions at the Nos.4, 5 and 6 spots.
 

USF returns to action on March 20 when it travels to Notre Dame, Indiana for its first conference match of the year against Holy Cross College. The opening serve is scheduled for 5 pm.