[Women's Tennis] Women's Tennis Downs Westmont 5-4 in GSAC Tournament Final

Indian Wells, CA. - It took all nine matches to decide who was going to be crowned the Golden State Athletic Conference Women's Tennis Tournament Champion this morning. No. 11 San Diego Christian (11-6) came out victorious edging out No. 15 Westmont (9-11) by a score of 5-4.

The Hawks would go on to take the early lead (2-1) through doubles play. Sarah Urbanek and Nadine Geschke of SDC would roll past Westmont's Isabel Lee and Peyton Trebisky 8-2 at ones. Tatum Phillips and Delaney Roche of Westmont evened the score at one a piece with an 8-3 victory over SDC's Miriam Boeta and Paula Vazquez. Aleksandra Emelianova and Sarah Schaerer were able to defeat Westmont's Cade Pierson and Taylor Cheung-Damonte at number two doubles for San Diego Christian.

GSAC Player of the year, Sarah Schaerer from SDC, was able to get by Isabel Lee 6-2, 6-1 in #1 singles. Westmont would then add a point at #5 singles as Roche took down Boeta 6-0, 6-1 bringing the match score to 3-2 in favor of the Hawks with just four matches left to play.

San Diego Christian tallied their fourth point and pulled within one point of clinching the GSAC Championship as #2 singles concluded. All-GSAC player, Sarah Urbanek, defeated Westmont's Pierson 6-2, 6-2.

Westmont would not go down without a fight as the Warriors clawed back in it with wins at #3 and #6 singles. In the six position, Cheung-Damonte took care of Vazquez winning 6-0, 6-2. Trebisky also played well for the Warriors at #3 singles taking down the Hawks' Emelianova with a 6-3, 6-4 win.

With the score knotted at four a piece, all eyes were on the #4 singles match between SDC's Geschke and Westmont's Phillips. The winner of this match would win the championship for their team. Phillips was up 5-3 in the first set and looked to be cruising but was unable to hold on as the Hawks freshman would come storming back and take the first set 7-5. The second set was another battle that ended in the same result as the first set. Geschke would go on to win the match by a score of 7-5, 7-5 to give the Hawks the 5-4 win and crowning them back to back GSAC Tournament Champions.

Since the GSAC only has four schools that played women's tennis in 2018, the Hawks will not receive an automatic bid to the NAIA National tournament (six schools needed for automatic bid). However, as the number 11 team in the country, San Diego Christian should not have a problem qualifying for at-large berth. Westmont, number 15 in the NAIA, should qualify as well.