Women's Tennis 4/28/2016 12:52:00 PM

Women's tennis edges Abington, 5-4, for NEAC West Title

Box Score CLARKS SUMMIT, PA - The Penn State Berks women's tennis team avenged its only conference loss of the season by taking down Penn State Abington, 5-4, in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) West Division Championship on Thursday afternoon at the Birchwood Tennis Courts. (Boxscore)

Penn State Abington defeated Berks 6-3 last Saturday to win the regular season and enter the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the tournament. In that regular season match, Abington swept the doubles matches and were winners in the top three singles contests, while Berks got their three points from the bottom three singles players.

Berks was able to give itself a better chance this time around by collecting wins in two of the three doubles bouts. The No. 2 duo of Marje Robinson and Tanya White emerged with a 7-5 victory, followed by Cassidy Schultz and Erin Ginther with an 8-4 win in the third flight. The No. 1 squad of Kianna Anderson and Caroline Bashore were edged 8-4 by Honora Hegarty and Sheena Phillip to salvage a point for Abington

Things got interesting as Abington again swiped the top three singles matches, while Berks got wins from Bashore (6-3, 6-1) and Schultz (6-0, 6-0) at five and six, respectively.

The match came down to a pair of juniors in the No. 6 flight of Ginther for Berks and Madison Kimball of Abington. Ginther grabbed the first by a score of 6-4, but Kimball evened the match by cruising to a 6-1 win in the second set. Kimball carried her momentum into the decisive third set by jumping out to a 5-2 lead. But Ginther kept her composure and reeled off five straight games to win 7-5 and seal the victory in Berks' favor.

It is the second straight year that Berks defeated Abington in the NEAC West Division Championship game and marks the fourth time in five years that Berks won crown. With the win, Berks pulls even at 8-8 on the season, while Abington falls to 13-4 overall.

The Nittany Lions will now advance to the NEAC/NAC Championship match against Colby-Sawyer College on Sunday, May 8 at 11:30 a.m. at the Tri-County Tennis Courts in Latham, New York. The winner of that match will earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Regional Tournament.

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Players Mentioned

Erin Ginther: 5' 5"; Junior

Marje Robinson: 5' 8"; Sophomore

Cassidy Schultz: 5' 7"; Senior

Kianna Anderson: 5' 4"; Freshman

Caroline Bashore: 5' 2"; Freshman

Tanya White: 5' 8"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

Erin Ginther
: 5' 5"; Junior

Marje Robinson
: 5' 8"; Sophomore

Cassidy Schultz
: 5' 7"; Senior

Kianna Anderson
: 5' 4"; Freshman

Caroline Bashore
: 5' 2"; Freshman

Tanya White
: 5' 8"; Freshman