Behind singles and doubles wins from Shelby Henderson and Kara Lefsrud, the St. Thomas women’s tennis team defeated the College of St. Benedict 5-0 in the MIAC quarterfinals Tuesday at Lifetime Fitness in Lakeville.

St. Thomas (15-3) took all three doubles matches and the first two singles matches to open up a 5-0 lead on St. Ben’s (9-10) to start the meet. With five of the nine points possible already claimed by St. Thomas, the meet was called as a 5-0 final score.

“It has us feeling pretty good and pretty confident. Getting the first win in the conference playoffs is really nice, and we’re just happy to get going with those games,” Henderson said. “I think we were really excited coming off our win against St. Kate’s (on Sunday), especially against a team that we really want to beat like St. Ben’s.”

After having a 12-meet winning streak snapped earlier this season, St. Thomas lost back-to-back meets for the first time this season against Carleton and Gustavus. The Tommies have now strung together wins against St. Catherine University and St. Ben’s to get back on track as they enter postseason play.

“We all really wanted to win today to move on to playing Gustavus, so we just focused on the main goal, and then, fortunately we had a good outcome,” Lefsrud said.

The Tommies took total control early in the match, winning all three doubles matches by narrow margins. Bridget Noack and Lefsrud edged out the closest doubles match, winning 9-7 in the first match of the meet.

The No. 3 doubles match was also a thriller, with freshman Lauren Keller and junior Brittany Alexander winning 8-6. The pair of Henderson and freshman Paige Becher won their match 8-5 to take all three doubles points.

After the strong start, the Tommies kept rolling with straight-set singles wins from Henderson and Lefsrud to clinch the 5-0 sweep.

“We’ve had a great year. Right now we’re 15-3, and two of our losses have been 5-4 in tie-breakers, so I’m very confident,” coach Terry Peck said.

St. Thomas will now travel to St. Peter to take on Gustavus Thursday in the MIAC semifinals. The Gusties defeated the Tommies 5-4 on April 26.

“We know that we can play almost anybody. So … we now have to go to Gustavus, and go and play in their house,” Peck said. “(Gustavus) brought in a lot of students to cheer and stuff. It was very difficult, but we were right there, so we know we can play with anybody. We can beat anybody, and we just need to stay focused on our game and hopefully be healthy.”

Jacob Sevening contributed to this report.