ROCK ISLAND, Ill. - Carroll's women's tennis team defeated Augustana (IL) 4-3 Saturday afternoon in what was their final conference match of the Fall season. That marks the Pioneers' first victory against Augustana since rejoining the CCIW nearly 10 years ago. The win also secures a fourth-place finish in the CCIW standings.

Carroll (5-5, 4-4 CCIW) failed to get the doubles point, losing two of the three doubles matches. The lone winners were Makayla Counsell and Gracie Niebler at two doubles, winning their match 6-3 against juniors Natasha Guaerke and Maitreyi Shrikhande of Augustana (3-5, 3-5 CCIW).

Carroll came back swinging in singles. Gracie Niebler kicked it off with a three-singles win  6-4 6-2. Natasa Pupovac backed her up winning 6-2 7-5 at one singles. Katherine Trifilio, at two singles, won in a battle against the freshman Colleen Larry 6-4 7-6 7-3. It all came down to the five singles match in the end where Makayla Counsell took on Maddy Harned. Counsell dropped the first set 5-7 but returned winning the second 6-2. In the third set, it came down to a tiebreaker after finishing 6-6. Counsell's efforts paid off winning 9-7 in the tiebreaker to clinch the match for the Pioneers.

The Pios will be the four-seed in this spring's conference tournament, which will be hosted by Millikin in Decatur, Ill. from April 24-26.