Box Score WILLIAMSVILLE, N.Y. -- The winner takes it all!! The Daemen University women's tennis team clinched a postseason berth for the fifth consecutive season with a huge 5-2 win over crosstown rival D'Youville University on Saturday evening. The Wildcats and Saints were both battling for the fourth and final spot in the 2024 East Coast Conference Championship tournament, and with the win, the Wildcats will play as the No. 4 seed in the ECC Championship tournament in Flushing, N.Y. next weekend, Oct. 25-26.
It marked the fourth straight win for Daemen, who improves to 9-4 on the year and 2-3 in ECC play while winning their 12th straight match up against D'Youville. The Wildcats have never lost to the Saints in the 11-year history of the series.
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The Wildcats opened the match by taking two of the three doubles pairings to earn the first point of the day. Daemen's No. 3 pairing of junior
Carly Armitage (Rochester, N.Y.) and freshman
Stephanie Baier (Boise, Idaho) set the standard early with a perfect 6-0 win over D'Youville's Paola Ermina and Yelizavita Prokopenko. The Wildcats pair of graduate student
Frida Rubio (San Diego, Calif.) and freshman
Bella Bjerkan (Elmhurst, Ill.) dropped first doubles, 6-1, bringing it all down to the two's. With a considerable lead over D'Youville, the Wildcat senior duo of
Kitsa Scime (Williamsville, N.Y.) and
Yinett Del Leon (Cape Coral, Fla.) served up a big 6-2 win over the Saints' Yuliia Kashtelian and Maria Campisi to earn the first point of the match and head into singles play with momentum.
It didn't take long for the Wildcats to pick up their next point. Continuing her impressive freshman campaign, Baier notched her fourth consecutive singles victory in a 6-0, 6-0 sweep over Prokopenko in No. 6 singles. The freshman ties Scime for the longest singles win streak this season (4) and is 8-4 on the year in singles play. On the fifth court, Bjerkan gets back into the win column with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ermina. With a 3-0 lead in the match, the Wildcats sealed the deal with a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 4 singles by Armitage to win the match. Rubio dropped top singles (6-3, 6-2) to Kseniya, and Kashtelian picked up a 6-0, 6-0 win over Del Leon at third singles.
Over at No. 2 singles, after dropping the first set, 0-6, Scime mounted a big comeback, topping Mina Randejelovic 7-5 in a close second set and taking the third 10-8 to get her seventh win at second singles. Scime is now three wins away from claiming the Daemen record for singles wins (50). With her victory tonight, Scime moved into second all-time and is tied with Haylee Scanlan (2013-17) with 47 singles wins over her four-year career.
Let the postseason begin! The Wildcats will face top-seeded Queens College on Friday, Oct. 25 in the ECC Women's Tennis Championship held at the QC Tennis Bubble in Flushing, N.Y.
DOUBLES RESULTS
#1 -- Kseniya Zhdanok & Mina Randjelovic (DYU) def.
Frida Rubio &
Bella Bjerkan (DAE), 6-1
#2 --
Kitsa Scime &
Yinett Del Leon (DAE) def. Yuliia Kashtelian & Maria Campisi (DYU), 6-2
#3 --
Carly Armitage &
Stephanie Baier (DAE) def. Paola Ermina & Yelizavita Prokopenko (DYU), 6-0
SINGLES RESULTS
#1 -- Zhdanok defeats Rubio, 6-3, 6-2
#2 -- Scime defeats Randjelovic, 0-6, 7-5, 10-8
#3 -- Kashtelian defeats Del Leon, 6-0, 6-0
#4 -- Armitage defeats Campisi, 6-1, 6-1
#5 -- Bjerkan defeats Ermina, 6-1, 6-1
#6 -- Baier defeats Prokopenko, 6-0, 6-0
Daemen University features the premier NCAA Division II athletics program in the Buffalo-Niagara region, sponsoring 17 intercollegiate teams. For the latest information on Daemen Athletics, follow the Wildcats via social media on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, or sign up to receive customizable news alerts, e-mail newsletters and weekly schedule alerts.
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