New Haven, Conn. Boston University’s dominance of the America East Women’s Tennis Championship continued on Sunday afternoon as the top-seeded Terriers swept No. 2 Binghamton, 4-0, in the league title match at the Connecticut Tennis Center in New Haven, Conn. With the victory, Boston University earns America East’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship and has now won 13-straight conference crowns and 17 of the 18 title events in league history.
The Terriers earned the doubles point as Monica Shepherd and Gina Sabatino won at the No. 1 spot (8-4) and Erin Katims and Laura Ahmes were victorious in the No. 2 hole (8-5). Katims also continued her impressive run as the No. 1 singles for Boston University with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Juliana Umeki. For her efforts, Katims was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Performer, which was voted on by the league’s head coaches. The rest of the all-championship team will be announced on Monday afternoon.
The America East Tennis Championship utilizes a format of three doubles matches and six singles matches. Doubles matches are played first using eight-game pro sets with a 12-point tie-break at eight games all. The team winning two or more of the doubles matches receives one point in the team scoring. The doubles matches are followed by the singles matches using a best two-of-three sets format. Each singles match is worth one point. A minimum of four points is required to win the team match.
Title Match Results
No. 1 Boston University 4, No. 2 Binghamton 0
Singles (one team point for each win)
No. 1 Erin Katims (Boston University) def. Juliana Umeki (Binghamton), 6-2, 6-2
No. 5 Cori Lefkowith (Boston University) def. Jenn Naegeli (Binghamton), 6-4, 6-2
No. 6 Danielle Abraham (Boston University) def. Nicole Scarangella (Binghamton), 6-0, 6-3
Doubles (one team point for best two-of-three)
No. 1 Shepherd/Sabatino (Boston University) def. Koprivica/Naegeli (Binghamton), 8-4
No. 2 Katims/Ahmes (Boston University) def. Umeki/Altinay (Binghamton), 8-5
Others (did not finish due to team match decided)
No. 2 Gina Sabatino (Boston University) led Zenyep Altinay (Binghamton), 6-4, 4-4
No. 3 Laura Ahmes (Boston University) led Jelena Koprivica (Binghamton), 7-5, 3-4
No. 4 Yana Sadovskaya (Boston University) led Lya Kushnirovich (Binghamton), 7-5, 5-4
No. 3 Scarangella/Kushnirovich (Binghamton) led Lefkowith/Abraham (Boston University), 7-6