Belleville, Illinois
Principia women's tennis team end the 2015-2016 campaign with a win in the finals of the SLIAC Championships. They secured the top spot in SLIAC for the 19
th time in the programs decorated history. This was the 3
rd win in 4 years. Principia women's tennis avenged the loss from last year's finals event and reversed their 5-4 loss from earlier in the season. Principia defeated Webster 5- 1 in an exciting and well executed match.
Principia started slowly at #1 and #2 doubles, getting broken in each match and falling behind 0-2 and 0-3, respectively. After falling behind,
Paige Cooley and
Caitlin Carney, Principia's #1 duo, then proceeded to win 3 games and take possession of the momentum. They played tenaciously producing strong returns and maintained a relentless attack on their opponent. They closed out the match with a break, winning 8-5.
At #2 doubles,
Anh Vu and
Hanne Andersen, fell behind early 0-3 and were behind 4-7 at match game. With the match on the line, they turned up the heat with great returns, consistent play, and some clutch volleys by
Anh Vu. The match went to a tie-breaker which they won.
While the drama played out on court 1 and 2, Principia's 3
rd doubles team,
Justine Roy and
Lena Carlson, surged to an electric 8-3 win. Justine served up several aces to go along with her strong returns. Lena was active at the net and closed out many of the points with volley play.
After sweeping the doubles and taking a 3-0 lead, the top 5 singles players started their matches.
Paige Cooley, Principia's #1 singles player was flawless in her match and pounded serves and hit ground stroke winners. She earned Principia their 4
th point with a 6-0, 6-0 win. Webster was able to win the match at #4 in sound fashion with strong and steady ground strokes.
Hanne Andersen, #2 singles, won her match 6-0, 6-2 earning Principia the final point. Hanne used a mixture of high bouncing moon balls combined with line drive winners. The last point of the contest she blasted a forehand winner passing shot.
Justine Roy at #3 singles was nearing a win in her match with a 6-3, 5-2 lead when the match ended.
Lena Carlson won the first set in her match at #5 singles and was in a battle for the second when the match was decided.
Nathalie DeLoach, #6 singles, started playing after Paige won, and was leading 2-1 when the match ended.
Check out this SLIAC Championship highlight video, created by the SLIAC SID:
/video/wten16
Principia will graduate 3 seniors from this year's team but look forward building a new team for next season.
