Crown 'em! ETSU women's tennis captures first ever SoCon regular season title unbeaten
JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (WCYB) — Not only was it a day to celebrate the senior class, but it was a celebration of a program-first Southern Conference regular season title for ETSU women's tennis on Saturday.
The Bucs sent off the seniors with a win in their final home match - taking down Furman in a battle of the conference unbeatens to take the crown.
ETSU started the match by winning the doubles point for the 14th time in 21 matches this season with victories from the tandems of Fernanda Carvajal/Daniela Rivera and Sofia Markova/Alessandra Caceres.
Following that, the Bucs added to their lead with a pair of singles wins from Caceres and Carvajal to open up a potential shutout of the Paladins. Yet, the Paladins battled back strong - eventually tying the match at 3-3.
This ultimately left the SoCon regular season title in the balance on the shoulders of one final match between Sofia Markova and Sara Snyder in the No. 1 singles. After splitting the first two frames, the match fittingly went into the third and final frame as the tiebreaker.
Snyder jumped out to early lead but it was Markova who recovered and won 8-6 in triumph to clinch the win for ETSU.
List of the final results:
Singles Competition
1. Sofia Markova (ETSU) def. Sara Snyder (FUR) 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 7-6 (8-6)
2. Fernanda Carvajal (ETSU) def. Maeve Thornton (FUR) 6-2, 7-6 (7-4)
3. Ellie Schulson (FUR) def. Daniela Rivera (ETSU) 7-6 (7-1), 3-6, 6-0
4. Grace Thomas (FUR) def. Jana Rovira (ETSU) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
5. Alessandra Caceres (ETSU) def. Macy Hitchcock (FUR) 7-5, 6-0
6. Marissa Pennings (FUR) def. Ralitsa Alexandrova (ETSU) 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-2
Doubles Competition
1. Fernanda Carvajal/Daniela Rivera (ETSU) def. Ellie Schulson/Macy Hitchcock (FUR) 6-1
2. Sofia Markova/Alessandra Caceres (ETSU) def. Jess Dawson/Sara Snyder (FUR) 6-2
3. Maeve Thornton/Grace Thomas (FUR) def. Ralitsa Alexandrova/Jana Rovira (ETSU) 6-3
This SoCon Regular Season Championship is ETSU’s fifth outright regular season title in program history with the other four coming when it was a member of the Atlantic Sun.
The Bucs will be the No. 1 seed for next week's SoCon Women's Tennis Tournament taking place at the Champions Club in Chattanooga, Tennessee from April 18-20/21.