Apr. 13—GRAND FORKS — Things went awry early Sunday morning.
UND tennis coach Tom Boysen grabbed the last of his 12 crates of Dunlap tennis balls for the Fighting Hawks' showdown with Denver for the Summit League title.
But the 12th crate was different than the other 11 in the shipment. It was not the Summit League-sanctioned Dunlap ball.
By the time the teams had conferred with the league and agreed to use Wilson balls — ones they'll use next week at the conference tournament — the temperature hit 50 degrees in Grand Forks.
That's the threshold to allow a team to force a match outdoors.
Denver did that.
Some spectators left, opting against standing outside in 50-degree temps with cloud cover and 15 mph winds. The ones at home couldn't watch, either. UND has live streaming indoors at Choice Health and Fitness but not outdoors.
They didn't miss too much.
UND, playing its first outdoor home meet in more than a decade, was shut out by the Summit League's powerhouse team.
Denver won the doubles point and the first three singles matches, clinching a victory in the regular-season finale.
It marked another Summit League title for the Pioneers, who haven't lost a conference regular-season matchup since 2018.
Denver will take the No. 1 seed into next weekend's conference tournament at Denver Tennis Park.
UND (17-4, 4-1 Summit) will be the No. 2 seed — highest in program history — after its school-record 14-match winning streak ended Sunday.
"We had our chances on our three doubles courts," Boysen said. "You've got to be really good any little window of opportunity you've got against a team like that, whether it's the second serve, the first time you have a break point or getting a break and then being ready to serve the next point. You have to capitalize in the mini-windows, because they don't give you too many."
After winning the doubles point, the Pioneers came out hot in singles, winning the first set on all six courts.
They closed out matches at No. 3, 5 and 6.
The other three were left unfinished as Denver hustled to Fargo to catch its flight back home.
"Unfortunately, they jumped on us on a number of courts in singles," Boysen said. "That's their mode. When they win the doubles point, they come pretty strong. And when they're on, it works in their favor.
"On a couple of courts, we were hoping that if we kept enough balls in play, maybe they'd beat themselves. That doesn't usually happen with them. It didn't happen today. They were going to make us beat them. Shots didn't fall on some big points."
UND will play third-place Omaha at 10 a.m. Central time Friday in Denver in the Summit League semifinals. Denver will play fourth-place Oral Roberts at 1 p.m.
The championship is scheduled for 11 a.m. Central on Saturday.
"Hopefully, we'll see them again," Boysen said. "We've got to take care of Omaha first and get through that one. We've never done that before — get to the finals — but hopefully, we have a chance."
