Led by the play of freshman Stefanie Nunic, the No. 62 women’s tennis team captured its 16th-consecutive America East Tournament title Sunday with a 4-1 victory over Binghamton University at the Yale Tennis Center.
The title is BU’s 20th in America East, and it clinched the squad’s 11th-straight berth in the NCAA Tournament. The team will find out its next destination when the NCAA Tournament bracket is unveiled at about 5:20 p.m. Tuesday on ESPNews.
Nunic, named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, paired up with last season’s tournament MOP, junior Francine Whu, to knock off Binghamton’s Jillian Santos and Lauren Bates, 8-3. The Terriers (15-5) clinched the match’s doubles point when seniors Cori Lefkowith, and Danielle Abraham beat Marina Bykovskaya and Danyelle Shapiro in the No. 3 doubles match.
Binghamton’s No. 5, Yagmur Gone, opened singles play by besting BU junior Elizabeth Corrao (6-2, 6-1) to even the match at one apiece. Nunic, BU’s No. 1, took the court with the match tied and responded by taking Bates down in straight sets (6-4, 6-2). Lefkowith followed in the rookie’s footsteps, taking down Marina Bykovskaya in similar fashion (6-0, 6-3) at No. 4.
Trailing 3-1 with three singles matches yet to be decided, the Bearcats (17-4) needed to sweep the rest of the championship in order to end BU’s America East reign. No. 3 Yumilia Smirnova did her job, taking the first set from BU freshman Petra Santini, 6-4, and jumping out to a 5-2 second-set lead. Meanwhile, No. 6 Shapiro forced BU senior Yana Sadovskaya to a third set with a 6-2 second-set victory.
But before either Bearcat could put away her respective Terrier, Whu took the match out of their hands. Playing as BU’s No. 2, the junior knocked off Santos (6-3, 6-4) in straight sets, clinching the match and the America East title for the Terriers.
The Terriers earned a spot in the title match after defeating the fourth-seeded University of Maryland-Baltimore County, 4-0, on Saturday. Nunic foreshadowed her Sunday dominance with an equally impressive outing in the semifinals, teaming with Whu to knock off UMBC’s top duo of junior Alice Chen and sophomore Ana Mungo, 8-3. In singles, Nunic defeated Mungo in the No. 1 match (6-2, 6-1), and with victories from Santini, Lefkowith and Corrao, BU swept the Retrievers, setting up Sunday’s championship performance.
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