Courtney Zinter said it was a shot she probably shouldn’t have attempted.
Knowing she had no chance of returning the ball if she let it bounce, Zinter, a junior on the Winona State University women’s tennis team, raced to her right and unleashed a big swing at the descending sphere.
She connected, sending the ball screaming down the line for a winner.
“It was kind of a shot I probably shouldn’t have taken, but I just decided to go for it anyway,” Zinter said. “The crowd was going wild for a few minutes afterward.”
The shot won Zinter and her No. 3 doubles partner, Kaycee Moore, the point and the game during the third set of the match that would decide the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship.
It also erased any doubt WSU coach Megan Hertz had of her team taking home the title.
“That’s not a shot that many people can do,” Hertz said. “As soon as Courtney hit that, I was like, ‘They have it.’”
Hertz was right. Zinter and Moore went on to win the set and defeat their Southwest Minnesota State opponents 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in WSU’s final match of the tournament, giving the Warriors their fourth consecutive NSIC title and their seventh in the past eight years.
“When it was over, I jumped on Courtney — she didn’t know it was to win conference,” Hertz said. “Kaycee didn’t realize it for a couple of minutes, either.”
A Zinter/Moore loss would have resulted in a first-place tie with Southwest, but the win gave WSU 58 points for the two-day event — four more than the second-place Mustangs.
“Southwest came to play. They brought their ‘A’ game, but not even that was good enough,” Hertz said. “To be a completely new team — a really young team — it was sweet to show other teams that their best is still not good enough to beat Winona State.”
WSU’s performance came after losing the final three matches and four of its past seven to end the regular season, including a 5-4 loss to Upper Iowa that Hertz referred to as a “wake-up call” — one that the Warriors answered Saturday and Sunday.
“We’ve been in these pressure situations before,” Hertz said. “After losing to Upper Iowa, and since we’ve won conference so many years in a row, I don’t think the girls were feeling the pressure. Southwest was, because they’ve never won it.”
Holly Peltier and Erika Richae won the conference title in straight sets in No. 2 doubles, and freshman Amanda Asche won the No. 3 singles championship 6-2, 6-1.
WSU’s Heather Pierce, who was named the NSIC freshman of the year, cruised through the tournament in straight sets before defeating Upper Iowa’s Jennifer Bradfield 6-2, 6-0 to win the No. 1 singles championship.
“Heather didn’t even let her opponents think they had a chance,” Hertz said. “She really took it to them.”
Pierce and Mary Hesterman finished second in No. 1 doubles, and Hesterman added a second-place finish in No. 2 singles. Peltier was the runner-up in No. 5 singles, Richae finished third in No. 6 singles, and Moore was the consolation champion in No. 4 singles to lead a balanced WSU attack.
“There were plenty of opportunities to choke,” said Hertz, who, as a player with WSU last season, claimed NSIC titles in both No. 1 doubles and No. 2 singles for the third consecutive year. “None of them were superstars. They did it all together.”