ELON, N.C. — Three-peat complete!
William & Mary captured the program's 29th CAA Women's Tennis Championship and third in a row, topping Delaware, 4-0, in the title tilt on Sunday afternoon at the Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
The Tribe (18-5) three-peated for the first time since 2018 and equaled the school record with its 14th consecutive victory.
Graduate student Mila Mejic provided the clincher at No. 3, winning a tiebreaker to increase her personal win streak to 11 matches.
After capturing the doubles point, the Tribe dominated the top of the singles lineup, winning in straight sets at No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 to win the championship. Junior Hedda Gurholt wrapped up a perfect 3-0 CAA Championship with a convincing win at No. 1, while graduate student Yu Chen provided the victory at No. 2.
W&M opened the match by taking the doubles point for the 19th time in its 23 matches. After the teams split at the top two spots, the point came down to No. 3. Mejic and freshman Francesca Davis won four-straight games to jump out to a 5-1 lead over Slade Coetzee and Paulina Jurkowska. The Blue Hen pair answered by winning three games in a row to close to 5-4, before the Tribe tandem earned the break in game 10 to pick up the win. Mejic and Davis moved to 8-1 on the year.
The other Tribe doubles win came at No. 2. Juniors Alessandra Anghel and Ine Stange found themselves in a hole early, but won three-straight games to take a 4-3 lead. At 4-all, the Green and Gold duo faced triple breakpoint at love-40, but won four-straight points to pull out the game. W&M claimed the match by breaking the UD team of Julieta Honrubia and Maryia Hrynashka for a 6-4 triumph. Anghel and Stange improved to 4-1 on line two.
Gurholt wasted little time increasing the Tribe lead to 2-0 with a dominant win at the top spot. She downed Coetzee, 6-2, 6-2, for her sixth-straight win. She upped her season mark to an impressive 28-5, including 14-2 at No. 1. Gurholt is now 26-3 all-time against CAA competition.
Like Gurholt, Chen dropped just four games in taking W&M to the brink of a CAA title. She topped Eliza Askarova, 6-4, 6-0, to push the Green and Gold lead to 3-0. Chen won her fourth in a row and upped her season mark to 21-9. She is an impressive 13-2 on line two.
Mejic put the finishing touches on the CAA crown with a win on line three. She downed Maryia Hrynashka, 6-3, 7-6 (2), to improve to 17-9 overall and 8-0 vs. CAA opponents.
By virtue of winning the CAA title, W&M secured its 26th NCAA Tournament berth. The 2024 NCAA Division I women's tennis championship kicks off with regionals, May 3-5, at campus sites. The selection show will be on Monday, April 29, and streamed on on NCAA.com at 6:30 p.m. The Super Regionals are May 10-11 at campus sites with the quarterfinals through national championship set to be played at Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Okla., May 17-19.
