B-CU Women's Tennis Downs SCSU For MEAC Title

Courtesy: B-CU Athletics

CAYCE, South Carolina – Alejandra Vidal perfectly capped off her first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament as Bethune-Cookman downed South Carolina State 4-0 in the championship game late Saturday.

The freshman delivered the clinching fourth point as the Lady Wildcats (22-6) won their first title since 2001 and snapped the ten-year dominance of the Bulldogs.

Named the tournament’s outstanding player, Vidal went all three of her singles matches – also clinching Friday’s semifinal over Florida A&M – and combining with 2015 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Rookie Of The Year Maria Garoz-Moreno on a pair of doubles wins.

Vidal rallied from a 5-2 deficit in the first set tiebreaker as she downed Smarananda Petreanu 7-6 (5) 6-3 at No. 6 singles.

Her fellow freshmen – Adel Musina and Garoz-Moreno – registered the second and third Lady Wildcat points as the B-CU upperclassmen were fending off strong challenges.

Mina Matsuba, the two-time MEAC Player Of The Year, dropped the second set of a long-awaited No. 1 match with SCSU’s Intissar Rassif, but had regained control of the third set to take a 5-2, but the window of Matsuba clinching the made closed when Rassif won two straight games to make it 5-4.

Seniors Maria Sablina and Chinatsu Kajiwara were both leading their matches when play was halted.

After a lengthy rain delay, B-CU clinched the doubles point when Matsuba/Salina got the one game they needed for an 8-2 victory. Garoz-Mareno/Vidal had won their No. 3 doubles match 8-0 earlier in the day.

Visit B-CUathletics.com for further coverage of the championship.

FINAL STATS

COURTESY BETHUNE-COOKMAN UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION