Bison beat Seahawks to end regular season

NEWPORT, R.I. - Salve Regina University women's tennis suffered a 9-0 defeat at the hands of Nichols College on Sunday in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) regular season finale at the Leroy Avenue courts.

It marked the final regular season home match for four Seahawk seniors - Elizabeth DiFilippo (West Chester, Pa.), Anastasia Lara (Escazu, Costa Rica), Hayley Maxwell (Pound Ridge, N.Y.), and Meg Olson (Colchester, Vt.) - as Salve Regina (4-4; 4-4 CCC) will be the fifth seed on the road at fourth-seeded Gordon College on Tuesday (2 p.m.) in the opener of the conference playoffs.

Nichols (12-2; 7-1 CCC) clinches the second seed and earns a first-round bye.

DiFilippo and Olson played as a doubles pair for the 43rd time, trailing only Kristina and Michelle Kennedy '07 for the most matches played together by one Seahawk pair (51).

The Bison starting six swept doubles action by a combined 24-2 score. First doubles featured freshmen Lauren Candia (Anaheim, Calif.) and Alana Judd (Westborough, Mass.) defeating Emma Gruber (New Canaan, Conn.) and Maxwell, 8-1. At second doubles, Bison senior Lindsay Benoit (Holden, Mass.) and sophomore Cristina Szepanski (Windsor Locks, Conn.) won 8-1 over DiFilippo and Olson.

Third doubles, another pair of Bison freshmen Ashley Dallaire (E. Bridgewater, Mass.) and Daniela Saldarriaga (Medellin, Columbia) took an 8-0 decision over Taylor Amendola (Westbrook, Conn.) and Courtney Bailey (No. Dartmouth, Mass.).

Salve Regina managed to get games in all six singles matches, but the Bison swept each match in straight sets - Judd at first, Szepanski at second, Benoit at third, Candia at fourth, Dallaire at fifth, and Saldarriaga at sixth.

Bailey won the most games with four at the fourth spot against Candia.

Salve Regina finished one match behind Gordon (6-6; 5-3 CCC) and lost to the Scots, 8-1, on September 9.