TAHLEQUAH, Okla. - The Augustana women's tennis team saw their season come to a close when they fell 5-0 to No. 17 Northeastern State University in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Championship Sunday afternoon. The Vikings finish their season with a 21-4 record, including two conference championships.

The RiverHawks advance to the NCAA Central Region 2 Championship match tomorrow at 10 a.m against Nebraska-Kearney.

The Vikings found themselves in a hole early when Augustana's No. 1 doubles, Jessa Richards and Sydney Postal fell 8-2 to No. 10 Patricia Husakova and Kristina Savchenkov. The No. 2 pairing of Heather Sullivan and Berkley Darr dropped their match, 8-3. 

The No. 3 pairing of Jenna Helleberg and Meredith Lawrence fell to Northeastern State's Easton Parker and Barbora Jirickova by a score of 8-2.

The RiverHawks expanded their lead to 4-0 when Kristina Savchenkov, ranked third in the central region as a singles player, dispatched Richards in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1. For Northeastern State's fifth and final win, Patricia Husakova, ranked fourth in the central region defeated Postal 6-1, 6-0 giving the RiverHawks the 5-0 victory over the Vikings.
 
The next four matches went unfinished starting with Darr dropping the No. 3 singles match 6-0, 5-2. Helleberg lost 6-3, 5-2 at the No. 4 singles match.
 
Lawrence battled against Barbora Jirickova and only got one match in winning the first-set 6-3 at the No. 5 singles match. Sullivan lost the first-set 6-1 then came back to take the second-set 5-2 over Easton Parker at the No. 6 singles spot. Both matches would go unfinished.
 
Augustana ends its season with a 21-4 record, the third straight season with at least 20 wins. The Vikings also won their sixth straight NSIC regular season conference championship with a perfect 11-0 record including eight shutout wins.

Augustana also secured their fifth consecutive NSIC Tournament championship with wins over Winona State, Minnesota State, and Upper Iowa. That tournament championship gave the Vikings their sixth straight NCAA Central Region Tournament appearance, before they lost to Northeastern State for a second straight year at the NCAA Championships.