Concordia Women's Tennis Claims Fifth Straight CACC Championship after 5-4 Victory over Chestnut Hill

Concordia Women's Tennis Claims Fifth Straight CACC Championship after 5-4 Victory over Chestnut Hill

Philadelphia, Pa. – For the fifth consecutive season the Concordia Clippers women's tennis team captured the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championship title after a 5-4 victory over Chestnut Hill on Sunday afternoon. Concordia, the second seed, would battle their way from behind in the match to defeat the Griffins, the top seed, in the championship match.

The Clippers would jump out to a 1-0 lead as freshmen Stefanie Canals-Baker (Pollensa, Islas Baleares, Spain) and Costanza Mecchi (Rome, Italy) began the afternoon with an 8-4 victory over Charlotte Dawson and Marie Deleval in the No. 1 doubles match. The Griffins would respond with an 8-4 victory in the No. 3 match as the duo of Morgan Oechsle and Hayley Craskey defeated freshman Valeriia Cheban (Odessa, Ukraine) and sophomore Nicole Stuhr (Glendora, Calif.). Chestnut Hill would close out doubles play as Kelly Dennis and Iman Williams-Mulesa would edge out junior's Alla Kravchuk (Tashkent, Uzbekistan) and Linda Eliasson (Gothenburg, Sweden), 8-5, to take a 2-1 match lead into singles play.

Eliasson would kick off singles play with a 6-0, 6-2 victory in her No. 2 match against Williams-Mulesa to tie the score at 2-2. The Griffins would respond with a win in the No. 6 match as Owens took a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Stuhr. Shortly thereafter, Mecchi's 6-0, 6-1 win over Dawson in her No. 1 match wold knot the score at 3-3 with only three matches remaining.

Concordia would grab the next match victory as Canals-Baker would defeat Deleval 6-2, 6-4 in the No. 3 match to get the Clippers within one match of the title. Chestnut Hill's Oechsle would battle her way to a 6-1, 6-1 win in the No. 5 match against Cheban to keep their hopes alive.

Just like yesterday's semi-finals match, the outcome of the match for Concordia would come down to the last singles match to conclude. Today it would be Kravchuk's day to shine as she would battle back after dropping the first set 6-4 against Dennis to go on and take the last two sets 6-3, 6-2 and clinch the championship title for the Clippers.

Following the match Concordia's Eliasson and Kravchuk were named to the CACC All-Tournament team while Mecchi was named the tournament's MVP.

With a NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Championship automatic bid secured, the Clippers will wait until the spring to compete for a chance at a national title. Their spring schedule will be announced in the upcoming months on ConcordiaClippers.com.