MANCHESTER, N.H. – For the first time in program history the University of New Haven women's tennis team completed a perfect regular season in the Northeast-10, earning a 7-0 sweep of Southern New Hampshire to secure the league regular season title for the second straight season. With the win, New Haven will enter the postseason with a 9-0 record and earn a first-round bye as the top seeded team.
The Northeast-10 Conference Championship is scheduled to begin in just over a week, on Wednesday, October 16, with first round action as the third and fourth seeded teams will host opening round games. New Haven and the No. 2 seed, still to be determined with the final weekend of the regular season upcoming, will earn a bye and host semifinal matches on Friday, October 18 with the league title to be awarded on Sunday, October 20. All matches will be played at the home court of the highest seeded teams.
In Tuesday's regular season finale at Southern New Hampshire, the Chargers would begin the sweep with a pair of victories in doubles to earn the point. After splitting the decisions at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, with New Haven's Laura Ortner (Schlierbach, Austria/BRG Kirchdorf) and Leni Bischof (Aigen, Austria/BRG Stainach) earning the win at No. 3 with a 6-4 decision, the Blue and Gold would turn to their No. 1 doubles pair of Karim Carreras (Asuncion, Paraguay/Colegio Bautista de Villa Morra) and Valentinna Ferrarini (Caxias do Sul, Brazil) to secure the opening point of the match. The duo continued their unbeaten season, now at 8-0, with a 6-4 decision over the Penmen's Dajana Abadzic and Zuzanna Krygier.
In singles action, the first point of the day would come from Agustina Ravera (Miramar, Fla./Broward Virtual School) in the No. 6 position as she surrendered just a single game to her opponent, while Ferrarini would add the next point winning by retirement. With the 3-0 lead in the match, the match-winning victory came at No. 3 singles with Risako Umekuni (Saitama, Japan/Shumei Eiko) needed a tie breaker to take a 7-6 (7-5) win in the first set before guaranteeing the undefeated regular season with a 6-4 win in the second set.
Rounding out the singles decisions were Carreras at No. 2, Victoria Togores (Canary Islands, Spain/Colegio Hispano Ingles) at No. 3 and Laura Ortner (Schlierbach, Austria/BRG Kirchdorf) at No. 5, all of which would be forced to a third set before earning the wins. Togores would see the biggest battle from her opponent, Krygier, who forced the third-set with a 6-4 victory in set two and took Togores to the limit before falling by a 7-5 set three score.
The Chargers will not be idle until they begin their NE10 title quest as they are scheduled to travel to Mount Berry, Ga. for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Cup which begins on Thursday, October 10. By way of their ITA regional titles in doubles and singles, respectively, Valentinna Ferrarini (Caxias do Sul, Brazil), Karim Carreras (Asuncion, Paraguay/Colegio Bautista de Villa Morra) and Risako Umekuni (Saitama, Japan/Shumei Eiko) will all represent the Chargers at the national tournament representing the first New Haven players to ever advance to the national level.
