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Women's Tennis Downs Centre to Advance to SCAC Semifinals
North Little Rock, Ark. – The second-seeded Trinity Tigers beat the No. 7 Centre Colonels 8-1 Friday in the opening day of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Championship Tournament at Burns Park Tennis Center.
Trinity (11-11), ranked 19th in the NCAA Division III, meets No. 3 Sewanee (ranked 30th) at 8 a.m. Saturday in the semifinals. The championship match is slated for 8 a.m. Sunday, with the winner getting an automatic bid to the NCAA regional tournament.
The Tigers (9-4 against Division III opponents) swept Friday’s doubles matches. Katy Poettcker and Kassie Seger won No. 1 doubles with an 8-6 victory over Karolyn Hays and Lauren Dever. No. 2 doubles went to Erin Jamison and Katie Budinsky, 8-3 winners over Elise Decamp and Mellissa Springer. Thavindra Ekanayake and Katie Griffith beat Katy Bender and Sarah Swauger 8-1 at No. 3 doubles.
Centre won No. 1 singles, as Hays beat Poettcker 6-4, 6-4.
Griffith captured No. 2 singles, defeating Dever 6-2, 6-1, and Ekanayake won No. 3 singles, with a 6-3, 6-0 victory over Bender. Budinsky came out on top of No. 4 singles with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Swauger. Megan Jackson took No. 5 singles, beating Lexi Clark 6-1, 6-0. Seger rounded out the match by winning No. 6 singles 6-1, 6-2 over Emily Pitt.
In 2009, the Tigers advanced to their 17th SCAC Championship match in 18 years, but fell 9-0 to DePauw. This year, DePauw is ranked ninth nationally, and is the tournament’s top seed.
