Indianapolis, Ind. - The Franklin College women's tennis team lost a 5-2 match to No. 2-seed Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in the semifinals of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament at the West Indy Racquet Club on Saturday.

The No. 3-seeded Grizzlies advanced to the afternoon match after earning a 5-0 victory over No. 6-seed Manchester University in the morning session.

Against Manchester, the team swept all three doubles matches to grab early momentum.

Juniors Melissa Sanders (Columbus, Ind./Columbus North) and Chelsea Howell (West Harrison, Ind./Franklin County) led the effort with an 8-2 win at No. 1 doubles. Seniors Julie Bazan (St. Louis, Mo./Villa Duschene) and Becky Bonomini (Lawrenceburg, Ind./East Central) earned an 8-3 triumph on the No. 2 court. Sophomore Emily Helvie (Batesville, Ind./Batesville) and junior Chelsea Platt (Shelbyville, Ind./Morristown) rounded out the winners with an 8-4 victory at No. 3 doubles.

Howell won by identical 6-1 scores to pick up a victory at No. 4 singles. Sophomore Kayla Walker (Indianapolis, Ind./Southport) secured the victory with a 6-2, 6-1 win on the No. 5 court.

Later, the Sanders-Howell tandem picked up an 8-5 doubles victory on the No. 1 court. The Fightin' Engineers picked up victories at the No. 2 and 3 positions to lead 2-1.

Sanders won a hard-fought three-set match over Rose-Hulman's Suzana Mohd at the top of the singles lineup. She won the deciding third frame by a 6-4 score after the two split tiebreakers in the first two sets. The win also avenged a regular-season loss to Mohd.

Rose-Hulman picked up victories at No. 2, 3, and 6 singles to advance to the HCAC championship match.

The Grizzlies battled four hours in an attempt to defeat Rose-Hulman, which posted a 9-0 victory over Franklin during the regular-season.

Franklin finished the fall campaign with a 7-4 record.