Philadelphia, Pa. – The Concordia College Clippers women's tennis team sailed to their fourth straight Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship title on Sunday afternoon. The No. 1 seeded Clippers defeated the No. 3 seeded Chestnut Hill College Griffins 5-2 to cap a perfect fall schedule.
Concordia came into the championship match undefeated on the fall season with a perfect 8-0 record during the regular season. Saturday's 5-0 win over Holy Family in the CACC Semifinals would secure their spot in the championship match.
Chestnut Hill would strike first in the match with an 8-6 victory in the No. 2 doubles match. The duo of Kelly Dennis and Morgan Oechsle would give the Griffins a 1-0 match lead after defeating the Clippers' duo of senior's Ana Mendes (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil) and Clara Catanzano (Sete, France). Concordia would respond with victories in the other two doubles matches as senior Yuliya Plevako (Astana, Kazakhstan) and freshman Luisa Candido (Boca Raton, Fla.) grabbed an 8-4 win over Ana Shcherbakova and Maria Parapouras in the No. 1 match while Camilla Xavier (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) and Alla Kravchuk (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) secured an 8-5 victory in their No. 3 match against Axe Jowens and Ima Williams-Mulesa.
With the Clippers taking the advantage going into singles action they knew that the match would be far from over. Mendes would bounce back from her doubles loss to give Concordia their first singles win with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Oechsle in the No. 4 match. Freshman Estelle Fougeray (Argences, France) would give the Clippers a 4-1 match advantage after she secured a 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 6 singles over Owens.
The next match to finish would be No. 1 singles as Chestnut Hill grabbed a much needed victory after Shcherbakova's 7-5, 6-2 win over Kravchuk kept the Griffins' hopes alive. Plevako, the 2012 CACC Championship MVP, would crush those hopes as she secured the championship for the Clippers in her No. 3 singles match. Her 6-2, 6-3 victory over Parapouras ended the match as Concordia took a 5-2 win and a fourth straight CACC Championship.
Following the match the Clippers' Candido, Mendes and Plevako were named to the 2012 CACC Women's Tennis All-Tournament Team.
With a 2013 NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Championship automatic bid secured, Concordia will wait until the spring to compete for a chance at a national title. Their spring schedule will be announced this winter on ConcordiaClippers.com.