Junior Amy Schmidt of the Muhlenberg women’s tennis team won her first-round match at the NCAA Division III Championships before falling in the Round of 16 to the top-seeded player in the tournament.

Schmidt defeated Jeannine Liang of Claremont, a returning All-American, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) in her first match. “Most of the points were close,” said Schmidt of the first-set score. “She definitely stepped it up in the second set.”

Liang actually held a 5-2 lead in the second set before Schmidt came back to force the tiebreaker.

In the second round, Schmidt went up against Lindsay Hagerman, the No. 1 player for national runner-up Washington & Lee, and was defeated, 6-1, 6-3.

“She was so good,” commented Schmidt, who was up 3-2 in the second set before Hagerman won the last four games. “I was really happy with the match. I played pretty well, gave her a run and scored some good points.”

Schmidt finished the season with a record of 20-2, with her only other loss coming in the final of the Centennial Conference Individual Championships, which she entered as the top seed.

“I was much more relaxed [today] and I was just going to enjoy the experience,” said Schmidt, who had a whirwind pair of weeks that included trips to Atlanta for the NCAA Team Championships and Kalamazoo, Mich., for the individual tournament. On Tuesday, she will be leaving to do summer study in Costa Rica.

Before this season, no Muhlenberg tennis player or team had appeared in the national championships.

Last year, players who won one round at the NCAA singles tournament received All-America recognition from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Click here for the tournament Web site.