Emma Gruber (left) was voted to the All-CCC Second Team Singles while Elizabeth DiFilippo earned her second honorable mention singles in four seasons.
Emma Gruber (left) was voted to the All-CCC Second Team Singles while Elizabeth DiFilippo earned her second honorable mention singles in four seasons.
Posted: Oct 07, 2014

Gruber, DiFilippo all-conference singles

NEWPORT, R.I. - Eight different institutions that sponsor women's tennis from the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) were represented on the 2014 All-CCC Women's Tennis Team, including Salve Regina University sophomore Emma Gruber (New Canaan, Conn.) and senior Elizabeth DiFilippo (West Chester, Pa.).  In addition to the all-conference team, four major individual award winners and the team sportsmanship award winner were selected.

Gruber, who recently earned the conference's Player of the Week honor (September 22-28), took over the number one singles role four matches into the season. She finished with a 4-4 singles record in dual match play, and also had the same mark in doubles plus a 1-1 performance in the 30th annual Grass Court Doubles Championships hosted by the Seahawks at the Tennis Hall of Fame. After helping the Seahawks to a 5-4 win at Western New England in the season-opener (September 6), all of Gruber's doubles matches came at the top position with three different partners - Kasey Walther (Natick, Mass.), Taylor Amendola (Westbrook, Conn.), and Hayley Maxwell (Pound Ridge, N.Y.).

DiFilippo returns to the All-CCC singles team after a similar selection in her freshman season in 2011. The left-handed tri-captain won four of her first five singles matches this season, all in straight sets. After earning the third singles position in pre-season, DiFilippo elevated to second singles. Her doubles partner for the entire season was classmate Meg Olson (Colchester, Vt.) and together they won five matches including a 2-1 record at the Grass Court Doubles Championships, taking the consolation final at Flight C.

DiFilippo and Olson have played doubles together 43 times in their four years at Salve Regina, ranking second behind only the twin combination of Kristina and Michelle Kennedy (51).

Endicott College senior Amy Heacox was named CCC Player of the Year and Nichols College freshman Alanna Judd was recognized as the CCC Rookie of the Year.  Roger Williams University senior Alexandra Brown was selected as the CCC Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year, while Endicott's Jeremy Howardwas honored as CCC Coach of the Year.  Eastern Nazarene College and Western New England University were selected as recipients of the Team Sportsmanship Award.

Voting for the All-CCC team and the major awards was conducted among CCC head women's tennis coaches.

Salve Regina (4-4; 4-4 CCC) earned the fifth seed for the conference playoffs and travels to fourth-seeded Gordon College (6-6; 5-3 CCC) today for a quarterfinal match.