PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend women's tennis team captured their seventh consecutive Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Championship with a total of 26 points for the two-day event.
The Lions won eight out of the nine individual titles to compete for this weekend to make it their 11th overall championship titles in program history. Behrend earned the conference's automatic NCAA Tournament bid for the second straight year in the spring. Franciscan, competing in its first AMCC Championship for women's tennis, came in second with 13 points and La Roche was third with a team total of 10.
Five out of the six in the starting lineup for Behrend were double winners including Arica Christman (Sharon, PA/Sharon), Stephanie Cattron (Greenvile, PA/Commodore Perry), Leslie Durante (Fairview, PA/Fairview), Alison Quigley (Gibsonia, PA/Hampton) and Jade Buhite (Ashtabula, OH/Edgewood).
In singles action, Christman made it four conference titles in a row in the No. 1 spot. The senior defeated Jennifer Winkle of Franciscan 6-3, 6-0 before handing Victoria Shields, the second-seeded player in the tournament, a 6-2, 6-0 loss for the four-peat.
Receiving a bye into the second round at No. 2 singles, Cattron followed in Christman's footsteps with her fourth straight title. She blanked fourth-seed Natalie Freed from Pitt-Bradford 6-0, 6-0 and then only gave up two game points to Alanna Murray of Franciscan in the championship match to win 6-1, 6-1.
Durante and Quigley were also seeded first in third and fourth singles flights, respectively. Durante also capped her AMCC career with a four-peat, defeating Leann Roggensack of Franciscan 6-1, 6-1 and No. 2 seed Doria Shima of La Roche, 6-1, 6-0.
Quigley dominated the No. 4 spot for the Lions to collect her second straight AMCC title. She defeated Katie Roland of D'Youville 6-3, 6-0 before taking down No. 3 seed Kayla Branch of Pitt-Bradford, 6-0, 6-1.
Buhite, playing at No. 5 singles, started out as the second seed and blanked Angela Poblocki of D'Youville to move into the championship match. She upset the No. 1 seed Lynka Ineza of La Roche, 6-4 and 6-2 to win her second crown.
Rachel Harris (Russell, PA/Eisenhower) was the top seed at No. 6 singles and advanced to the finals with a 6-1, 6-3 decision over Leslie Shallop of Pitt-Bradford. The second-seed Hannah Pettit of Franciscan topped Harris 7-5, 6-2 for the championship and stop Behrend from sweeping the singles competition.
All three doubles matches received a bye into the semifinals. Christman and Cattron teamed up for the No. 1 championship with match scored of 8-1 and 8-0 in the finals against Winkle and Murray of Franciscan. Quigley and Durante managed to post an 8-5 win over Roggensack and Mary O'Brien of Franciscan to make it through to the finals where they beat Branch and Fowkes of Pitt-Bradford 8-3 for the No. 2 doubles title.
Buhite and Harris teamed up for the eighth team title at No. 3 doubles. An 8-6 win against fifth-seed Kristina Godnick and Kaylene Godnick put them in the championship match. They went on to post an 8-3 victory against Ineza and Melanie Ward of La Roche.
