Last weekend, the Lady Jays took off to Greencastle, In to take part in the 2014 ITA National Team Indoor Championship. The event spanned three days and consisted of matches against UC Santa Cruz, Pomona-Pitzer and Carnegie Mellon.
Hopkins entered the tournament with the top seed and a national ranking of seven. Their first match was against the UC Santa Cruz Banana Slugs. Hopkins jumped out to a 3-0 lead, winning in all three doubles matches. Senior captain Hailey Hogan and sophomore Sydney Lehman led the way, winning 8-4 at first.
Lehman continued her success in singles, topping Courtney Lymburner at third. Freshman Amanda Austi also picked up the convincing win at first in singles. The first day was also highlighted by Hogan, playing in the fourth position, securing her 91st career win. The Lady Jays confidence was high after not dropping a match to down UC Santa Cruz 9-0.
Day two consisted of a battle against fourth seed and 10th ranked Pomona-Pitzer in the semi-finals. Pomona-Pitzer would grab an early 2-1 lead after the doubles portion of the contest, only allowing a win to junior Elaine Baik and freshman Mikey Bathelmass.
That lead did not last long into singles, though, as Lehman again notched a speedy victory at third singles to tie the score 2-2. Austi battled back from an early deficit to earn another point for the Lady Jays. Who would win the semi-final match came down to the final three games. Taking all three of them, Hopkins would take the match with a score of 6-3. Junior Shannon Herndon clinched the win for the team at the sixth position. This win would send the team to the championship match against Carnegie Mellon in the final day of competition.
Carnegie Mellon came into the match ranked ninth in the country. The championship match would be a rematch of last year’s.
After the doubles portion of the match, Hopkins had a 2-1 lead. Baik and Barthelmass won their match at second, 8-4, while Herndon and junior Stephanie Rettig pushed the lead to 2-0 at third. Unfortunately, Lehman and Hogan fell in a very close match at first.
Hogan bounced back in singles as she snagged her 4nd career singles win. This win would not only extend the lead to 3-1, but also move her into eighth most career singles wins in the program’s history. The title was then clinched in a come from behind win for Austi. Her win ensured that the Lady Jays would take home their second consecutive ITA National Team Indoor Championship title.
The team hopes to build off of this success as they travel to Daytona Beach, Fl over spring break.
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