Blue Jays Take Title From Garnet
BALTIMORE -- 15th-ranked Johns Hopkins rallied from a 4-2 deficit to defeat the Swarthmore women's tennis team 5-4 in the championship match of the 2007 Centennial Conference Women's Tennis Championships Sunday afternoon.
Swarthmore had won three of the last four Centennial Championships and five overall (most in Conference history)--the titles came in 1995, 2001, '03, '05 and '06. It is the first title in school history for Johns Hopkins, earning the Blue Jays an automatic bid to participate in the 2007 NCAA Division III Tournament (also a first).
The Garnet (12-5 overall), seeded second in the Championship and ranked sixth in the Atlantic South region, jumped out to a 2-1 lead following doubles' action. After the Blue Jays won at No. 1 doubles, Rachel Wallwork '10 and Waverly Lutz '07 won their third straight match, defeating Tanya Gulnik and Ellen Berlinghof 8-5 at No. 3 to even the overall match at 1-1. The Garnet duo of Marissa Matthews '07 and Erica Lukoski '08 kept their perfect record in tact, moving to 8-0 on the season with an 8-6 over Amanda Schubert and Becky Busch at No. 2.
The Swarthmore momentum continued in singles' play--senior Sara Sargent cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 5 over Busch and classmate Sonya Reynolds, the fourth-ranked player in the region, eased past JHU's Brittany Matava (named 2007 Centennial Conference Player of the Year earlier in the week) by a score of 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1, putting Swarthmore in front 4-2.
The Blue Jays (16-3) pulled off the comeback by claiming hard-fought decisions at No. 2, 4 and 6 singles to bring the championship trophy to Maryland for just the second time in Conference history (Washington claimed a share of the title in 2002 when the championship was awarded based on regular season records).
Swarthmore awaits word of a possible at-large bid to the 2007 NCAA Championships--the brackets for team play, as well as individual entrants, will be announced Monday, April 30.