Seniors highlight Seahawk sweep of Gulls

NEWPORT, R.I. - Salve Regina University women's tennis wrapped up its conference regular season with a 9-0 victory over Endicott College today in Newport. The two teams entered the day tied for third place and the Seahawks secured the No. 3 seed in The Commonwealth Coast Conference championships which begin Tuesday. Both Salve Regina (9-2; 9-2 TCCC) and Endicott (8-5; 8-3 TCCC) will host first-round action on Tuesday.

"The final score is very deceiving," said Seahawk head coach Ed Habershaw. "We had a battle in every match and were fortunate to win each one. Endicott is a solid team and will do well in the tournament. Our first round match is against another team (Curry) whom we beat 9-0 in the regular season, but it wasn't as easy as the score may indicate."

On senior day for the Seahawks, Salve Regina's three doubles pairs each featured a senior. Valerie Leso [West Warwick, R.I.] and junior Nichol Stevens [Chester, Conn.] continued their steady play with an 8-2 decision at No. 2 doubles. Elise Jones [Pittsfield, Mass.] and freshman Jessica Moore [Middletown, R.I.] followed with an 8-3 score at No. 3 doubles.

Endicott's No. 1 pair, juniors Emily Annis [Hampton, N.H.] and Kate Cioffi [Essex, Vt.] raced to a 4-0 lead over Salve Regina's Erin Phillips [Morristown, N.J.] and freshman Ana Gwozdz [Taunton, Mass.]. The Seahawk duo remained calm and broke serve in the fifth game.

"Erin's hold of serve in the sixth game was critical," remarked Habershaw. "What a difference it would have been trailing 5-1 instead of 4-2. She had to hold against several break points as well."

Gwozdz and Phillips won eight of the last nine games for an 8-5 final score and a sweep of the doubles.

Moore made the score 4-0 with a 6-1,6-0 victory at No. 4 singles and Stevens clinched the team score with her straight-set win at No. 2 singles (6-2,6-0).

Three of the four remaining singles matches were decided by a third-set super tiebreak, first player to 10 points by a two-point margin. Gwozdz, with plenty of experience in third-set tiebreaks this season, played her fourth such match since September 21. In each case she has won the middle set. Today she won all 10 points in the super tiebreak for the victory at No. 3 singles.

Leso also has forced her share of three-set matches and today rallied for a 3-6,6-4,1-0(10-5) victory at No. 5 singles.

At No. 6 singles sophomore Karlee Walther [Natick, Mass.] outlasted her opponent for a 7-5,6-2 victory. "Karlee's matches are always long fights even if they get done in two sets," said Habershaw.

Phillips, who was scheduled to depart immediately after the match for her brother Kevin's wedding, went the longest on the day and needed a 10-8 score in the third-set tiebreak to register her first-ever victory over Cioffi at No. 1 singles.

Salve Regina will host No. 6 Curry College on Tuesday (2 p.m.) while Endicott entertains No. 5 Colby-Sawyer in its quarterfinal match on Tuesday.