BY TRAVIS WALTERS
On April 19, the Savannah College of Art and Design’s women’s tennis team won the Region XIV title. The team will now go on to the NAIA National Championship that will be held May 12-16 in Mobile, Ala.
The team came from three matches behind to beat Embry-Riddle University 5-4 at the Crotty Tennis Complex on Embry-Riddle’s campus. The win marks the fourth year the team has appeared in the regional match and the second year in a row that the women’s tennis team has won the title, but they have yet to win the national title. The team is ranked eighth overall.
Embry-Riddle had a 2-1 lead after the doubles matches. Natasa Zoricic and Hana Im of Embry-Riddle beat Irina Plijuszyin and Courtney Collins of SCAD 8-4 while Natalie Anaya and Lindsey Kurtz of Embry-Riddle beat Romina Mrochen and Stephanie Gula 8-4. SCAD players Hillary Collins and Erica Cardenas defeated Sara Abraul and Marga Rico Jimenez of Embry-Riddle 8-4.
After the first two singles matches, SCAD was down 4-1 as Abraul beat Cardenas 6-0, 6-2 and Zorici beat Pljuszyin 6-2, 6-3. Courtney Collins won SCAD’s first singles match against Kurtz 7-5, 6-0. Mrochen also won against Im 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in number two singles.
Stephanie Gula, a first-year architecture student, won the final match and gave SCAD the title. The match was against Rico Jimenez with a score of 7-6 in the first set and 6-3 in the second set. “When we won regional, I was so excited because not only did that place us in the national championship draw, but it also meant we would get to see our coach keep his promise and jump into the pond at Embry-Riddle,” said Gula.
Coach Chuck Keenan talked with the team after the doubles matches to raise their spirits. He also promised to jump into the pond in front of the tennis complex if they won.
“To get ready for the national tournament, I have been practicing outside of our team practices. Since this is my first national championship tournament I am not going to do anything different than how I usually would prepare for any other match besides giving it everything I have for the team,” says Gula. “We’ll see when the time comes what we will make him do to pump us up, but in the mean time we are just going to keep our focus and take it one match at a time.”
