Winthrop Wins 2018 Women's Tennis Championship
ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Top-seeded Winthrop women's tennis (19-5, 8-0 Big South Conference) clinched its 20th all-time Big South Conference Championship title with a dramatic 4-3 win over second-seeded Liberty Saturday morning at Rock Hill Tennis Center. With the conference championship victory, Winthrop earns an automatic bid to the 2018 NCAA Championship.
BOX SCORE
HOW IT HAPPENED
-Winthrop dropped the doubles point for just the fourth time all season as Liberty earned wins on courts two and three. The Flames struck first with a win at court two and the Eagles answered with a 6-2 victory at No. 1. Lauren Proctor and Megan Kauffman remained undefeated on the year with the win, an improvement on their regular season win over Liberty's No. 1 duo Evangeline Crist and Anna Dollar in which they needed a set tiebreak to win 7-6.
-Newcomers would lead the way in singles as Tayla Van Eck and Ellie Burns scored the Eagles' first two points in singles play.
-Freshman Tayla Van Eck put down a dominant 6-1, 6-4 victory at No. 4, improving on her 6-4, 7-5 regular season win over Liberty's Polina Miroshnichenko. Tied at 4-4 in the second set, Van Eck went up 5-4 on a break and secured victory on serve.
-In a reversal of fortunes at court six, Ellie Burns took down Liberty's Anna Dollar 6-2, 6-1 to give Winthrop a 2-1 team score lead. Burns fell to Dollar 6-1, 6-2 in her only regular season conference loss.
-Liberty would pull ahead 3-2 with wins at No. 3 and No. 5, following the regular season pattern.
-At court one, the 32nd-ranked player in the country Lauren Proctor brought the match to an even 3-3 with a straight-set win. Proctor battled to earn a 6-6 tie on a break in the first set, then took the tiebreak 7-5. Proctor would cruise to a 6-3 win in the second set, going up 5-3 on serve and taking the win on a break.
-The match decision would come down to the No. 2 position and Alisa Soloveva against Liberty's Maria Medina. Soloveva cruised in the first set to a 6-2 win, but Medina battled back in the second to take a 5-1 lead. With the match in the balance, Soloveva hung on to get two more games, but Medina took the set 6-3 to force a third set. With a new set, Soloveva came out firing, going up 3-0 before Medina would earn a game on a break. Soloveva would go up 5-1 with another break and hold of her own, but Medina would answer, taking two-straight games herself to pull within 5-3. Soloveva clinched the match and the team championship win on a break.
NOTABLES
- No. 32 Lauren Proctor (20-2) and Alisa Soloveva (19-3) own the best two records in the Big South Conference. Proctor is undefeated against conference opponents and has won all but one of her league matches in straight-sets, while Soloveva has also won each of her conference matches, with today's match against Medina being the first time a league opponent took Soloveva to three sets.
-No. 29 doubles duo Lauren Proctor and Megan Kauffman remained undefeated and improved to 22-0 on the season with their victory on court one.
-Ellie Burns has won nine of her last 10 matches, all but one in straight sets.
UP NEXT – NCAA TOURNAMENT
Winthrop has earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will await NCAA bracket selection announcements on Tues., May 1 at 5 p.m. ET.