BALTIMORE, Md. – The top two seeds in the 2013 America East women’s tennis bracket advanced to the finals after strong performances in the seminfinals on Saturday. Stony Brook defeated Binghamton in the morning match, while Albany posted a comeback victory over UMBC in the second semifinal. The teams will meet in Sunday’s championship match, which is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
The top seeded Stony Brook women got off to a good start in doubles play and turned that into a 4-0 victory. The Seawolves got strong play from their underclassmen, as freshmen Jackie Altansarnai (Hinsdale, Ill.) and Louise Badoche (Paris, France) won 8-4 while freshman Becky Shtilkind (Brooklyn, N.Y.) paired with sophomore Cassandra Dix (Northamptonshire, U.K.) for an 8-2 win. Stony Brook then won at one, two and five singles to clinch the match. Nini Lagvilava (Tbilisi, Georgia), ranked No. 115 in the ITA women's national singles rankings, cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 victory at the No. 1 spot.
In the afternoon match, UMBC came out strong in doubles play to grab the momentum. The Retrievers netted a pair of 8-4 wins to grab the point and get off to a 1-0 lead. Josefin Stange-Jonsson (Vasteras, Sweden) and Shannon Cleary (Little Bay, Australia) grabbed the win at the No. 2 spot, while Isabel Aldunate (Bowie, Md.) and Madlena Kurasz (Ziotoryja, Poland) were the winning duo at No. 3.
Albany had been in this position against UMBC in the regular season, however, and came back to win the match thanks to strong singles play. The Great Danes used that experience to storm back in Saturday’s semifinal match as well. The first point came when Stange-Jonsson had to retire due to injury at No. 4. Albany followed with wins at No. 1 and 2, where Irene Santos-Bravo (Madrid, Spain) and Rocio Lopez (Madrid, Spain) looked very strong, to make the score 3-1.
With play still in progress at the third, fifth and sixth spots, UMBC needed every match to get the win. It looked like things were heading that way, as the Retrievers took the first set at No. 5 and 6 and forced a tiebreak at No. 3. But Albany dug deep and held their ground, eventually prevailing. The clincher came at No. 6, where Mireille Hermans (Twello, Netherlands) bounced back from a 1-6 defeat in the first set and dropped only two games the rest of the way, winning 6-0 and 6-2.
For more information on tomorrow’s championship matchups, visit Championship Central at AmericaEast.com.