SUWANEE, Ga. - The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference announced the 2012 SCAC Women's Tennis All-Tournament team this afternoon. Any players or doubles teams that went through the conference tournament undefeated (minimum 2-0) were named to the team.
The 13th-ranked Trinity University women's tennis team defeated #16th-ranked Sewanee-The University of the South, 6-3, to win the team's first SCAC Championship since the 2006 season.
Trinity is now 18-7 on the season, bringing home the team's 16th overall SCAC title after finishing third the past two years.
After doubles, it looked like Trinity would run away with the match after taking all three points. Teams of Katie Griffith/Kylie Hornbeck and Kassie Seger/Stephanie Williamson both won 8-4 at lines two and three. In No. 1 doubles, Mackenzie Knoop and Thavindra Ekanayake edged their opponents 9-8 (8-6) to make it 3-0. All three Trinity doubles teams went undefeated over the weekend to earn all-Tournament honors.
Williamson won 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6 singles to put the Tigers up 4-0, but Sewanee took the next match for its first point of the day. Ekanayake lost 1-6, 2-6 at No. 2 singles for Sewanee's initial point. The two teams then went to a third set in all four of the final matches to extend the match.
Sewanee took two more singles victories to make it 4-3, putting Trinity in danger of allowing the lead to slip away. Griffith lost 0-6, 6-2, 2-6 at line three, while Hornbeck suffered a 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 0-6 loss at the fourth position.
The Tigers then pulled out the next two victories, though, securing the win for the conference crown with a pair of comebacks. Knoop won 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to clinch the win, then Lavinia Bendandi finished things off with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 5 singles.
Knoop and Williamson were all-Tournament honorees with 3-0 singles marks.
Trinity receives the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs, which will be the team's first postseason appearance since the 2008 season.
Trinity's Lavinia Bendandi (3-0 at #5 singles) was the only repeat all-Tournament singles honoree, however, Rhodes' Maggie Donohue and Trinity's Kassie Seger were recognized as members of an all-Tournament doubles team for the second consecutive year, and Trinity's Ekanayake was an all-Tournament doubles selection in 2010.
For the entire 2012 SCAC Women's Tennis All-Tournament team, click here.
