The No. 2 Boston University women’s tennis team overcame a loss in the doubles point to beat No. 1 Binghamton University, 4-3, on Sunday afternoon at Yale University in the America East championship.
The win earned the Terriers (12-8) their 18th straight conference title and their 13th straight NCAA tournament berth.
BU had fallen behind Binghamton (12-9) in the doubles matches, losing two out of three by scores of 8-1 and 8-5 before taking the third match, 8-5. It then won four out of the six singles matches to earn the championship, although it needed the final point in the tournament to determine the victory.
The Bearcats had entered Saturday’s tournament on a seven-match win streak, including a victory over BU on April 10.
Sophomore Vivien Laszloffy, sophomore Jessi Linero and junior Petra Santini won their singles matches for BU.
Then BU junior Stefanie Nunic, the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, lost her match after a closely contested three-set battle with Binghamton’s Anna Edelman, whom she had defeated the last time the two teams met.
Binghamton’s Yuliana Smirnova had defeated BU junior Monika Mical earlier, setting up a 3-3 tie to be broken by a final match between BU freshman Leonie-Charlotte Athanasiadis and Bearcat Marina Bykovskaya.
Athanasiadis defeated Bykovskaya in the first and third sets – 6-2, 6-7, 6-2 – to propel the Terriers to victory.
Back on April 10, when BU had lost to Binghamton, they were missing two important players in Santini and Laszloffy, both of whom played key roles in the conference title win.
The Terriers will learn who they’ll face in the first round on Tuesday in the 5 p.m. NCAA selection show.
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