FREMONT, Neb. -- With a bid to the NAIA National Tournament on the line, the Nebraska Wesleyan University women's tennis team came up one win short as Northwestern College defeated the Prairie Wolves 5-4 in the 2015 GPAC Women's Tennis Tournament Championship on Saturday in Fremont.

Northwestern now advances to the NAIA Tournament in Mobile, Alabama while the season comes to a close for the GPAC regular season champion Prairie Wolves.

NWU was undefeated in the regular season of GPAC play and breezed to the tournament championship with a 5-1 victory over Hastings College in the semifinals.  That set up a rematch with Northwestern College in the Tournament Championship.  NWU had defeated the Red Raiders, 6-3, earlier in the season.

The championship match was highly contested with four of the six singles matches going three sets.  Northwestern took two out of the three doubles matches to lead 2-1.  Gaby Chaparro and Jennifer Heywood were 8-2 winners at No. 2 doubles for the only NWU doubles victory.

Chaparro also won her singles match at No. 1 as she defeated Frankie Eszes 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0.  Chaparro finished the year 16-5 in singles play and won her final 13 matches of the season. 

The easiest victory on the day was at No. 2 singles where Katherine Ternent was a 6-0, 6-0 winner over Terry Odera.  It took three sets, but Natalie Cech won her No. 3 singles match 7-6 (5), 2-6, 7-5 for the fourth victory for the Prairie Wolves.

Northwestern took all three singles matches from 4-6 to earn the win and get a spot at the NAIA National Tournament.

Nebraska Wesleyan finished the season with a 13-10 overall record.