The Stony Brook women’s tennis team earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament after winning its fourth straight America East Tennis Championship this weekend.
“This never gets old. This absolutely never gets old,” Head Coach Gary Glassman said.
Stony Brook, at No. 1, defeated host-Binghamton in the semifinals on Saturday, advancing on to the AEC Championship title match against No. 3 Albany, on Sunday.
The Seawolves were led by senior and America East Player of the Year Polina Movchan, who helped lead a No. 2 doubles match over Binghamton 8-3 with freshman Yana Nikolaeva and a No. 1 singles match, 2-0; winning each set 6-1.
Movchan has now won four America East titles in four tries in her career, and was named the 2015 Most Oustanding Player of the Tournament.
“She’s really been the gamechanger for our program,” Glassman said. “What a career.”
Doubles team Nadia Smergut, and Louise Badoche, defeated opponents Agatha Ambrozy and Katherine Medianik of Binghamton 8-3 as well.
Kristina Vozniak and Elizabeth Tsvetkov tied their doubles match against Binghamton, 6-6. Smergut also won her singles match, defeating Binghamton’s Alexis Tashiro 6-0, 6-4. Tsvetkov defeated Annie DiMuro 6-4, 6-1 to secure Stony Brook’s undefeated victory.
No. 1 Stony Brook defeated No. 3 Albany on 4-0 on Sunday, claiming the title as the AEC Champions for the fourth consecutive year.
The Seawolves got 8-4 and 8-3 victories from their Smergut/Badoche and Tsvetkov/Vozniak doubles pairs. Stony Brook earned straight-set wins from Vozniak, Adey Osabuohien and Tsvetkov in singles matches, sweeping the Great Danes again as it had earlier in the season.
In an earlier matchup this year, the Seawolves defeated Albany 7-0.
This season is recorded as one of Stony Brook’s best with a 15-1 record, losing only to No. 36 Harvard, 5-2.
“This is just a really special year because we accomplished so many of the goals that we set out to do, one to beat a nationally ranked school, become nationally ranked, and this is always our main goal, to win the conference championship,” Glassman said. “Pretty much, we ticked almost everything off the list.”
The Seawolves will learn their fate on Tuesday, April 28 at 5 p.m. when the 64-team NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament Bracket will be unveiled during a stream available on NCAA.com. Stony Brook lost to Texas A&M in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
