Women's Championship - Final
No. 7 USF 4, No. 1 Tulsa 2
No. 7 USF won the American Athletic Conference Women’s Tennis Championship with a 4-2 upset over top-seeded Tulsa on Saturday afternoon at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida.
The Bulls defeated the top three seeds in the tournament to capture their second American Athletic Conference title and their first since 2014, ending Tulsa's two-year run atop the conference.
USF's Nicole Dzenga was named as the championship's Most Oustanding Performer as she went 3-1 singles play and was 4-0 in doubles . She registered the clinching point in Saturday's final, scoring a three-set win at No. 5 singles.
USF began the match by taking the doubles point with victories from the No. 2 and No. 3 spots. Tulsa took the No. 1 doubles spot, but Jessica Cortes Chaves and Juliana Cardoso produced a 6-3 win at No. 2, leaving the team point to be decided by the result at No. 3. Dzenga and Vanja Klaric battled Tulsa's Martina Okalova and Vera Ploner to 6-6, but the USF pair won the tiebreaker 7-3 to give the Bulls the 1-0 advantage.
USF gained a 2-0 lead when Cortes Chaves won at No. 6 when Tulsa's player could not continue after three games of the second set, but Tulsa tied the match with a straight-set win at No. 4 singles by Martina Okalova and a three-set victory at No. 3 by Mahitha Dadireddy.
USF took the lead for good after Vera Bessanova battled back from a 1-6 score in the first set at No. 2 singles to take the second 7-5 and hold off Rongrong Leenabanchong for a 6-4 win in the third. That left the matches at No. 5 and No. 1 to decide the winner as both went to a deciding third set. With USF's Ana Roman Dominguez and Tulsa's Ksenia Laskutova tied a 3-3 in the third set at No. 1, the Bulls were able to take the title when Dzenga was a 6-4 winner in the third against Martha Matoula at No. 5.
USF earns The American's automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Championship. Selections for the NCAA Championship will be announced May 2.
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Doubles Competition (Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3)
1. Ksenia Laskutova/Mahitha Dadireddy (Tulsa) def. Vera Bessonova/Olga Martinez (USF) 6-2
2. Jessica Cortes Chaves/Juliana Cardoso (USF) def. Rongrong Leenabancho/Martaha Matoula (Tulsa) def. 6-3
3. Nicole Dzenga/Vanja Klaric (USF) def. Martina Okalova/Vera Ploner (Tulsa), 7-6(3)
Singles Competition: (Order of Finish: 6, 4, 3, 2, 5)
1. Ksenia Laskutova (Tulsa) vs. Ana Roman Dominguez (USF), unfinished
2. Vera Bessonova (USF) def. Rongrong Leenabchong (Tulsa), 1-6, 7-5, 6-4
3. Mahitha Dadireddy (Tulsa) def. Juliana Cardoao (USF), 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-1
4. Martina Okalova (Tulsa) def. Vanja Klaric (USF), 6-2, 7-5
5. Nicole Dzenga (USF) def. Martha Matoula (Tulsa), 7-5, 4-6, 6-4
6. Jessica Cortes-Chaves (USF) def. Marcelina Cichon (Tulsa) 6-1, 1-2, ret.
Most Outstanding Performer
Nicole Dzenga, USF