RALEIGH, NC – North Carolina A&T won its women's tennis regular-season finale with a 4-1 win over the Shaw University Bears Monday afternoon at Worthdale Park. The Aggies also found out their seeding for the 2023 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Women's Tennis Tournament Championship next week at the Mackesy Tennis Center at the Millie West Courts on the campus of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
After losing to two difficult opponents in UNC Greensboro and 28th-ranked Wake Forest, the Aggies recovered to finish the regular season at 8-7. The Bears, 10-0 in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), dropped to 11-4 overall.
Following the Aggies win over the Bears, the CAA released the brackets for the conference tournament. The Aggies enter the tournament as the No. 9 seed and will face a familiar rival in the eighth-seeded Hampton Pirates on Thursday, April 20, at 9 a.m. at William & Mary.
The CAA Seeding Committee utilized the following criteria: head-to-head, mutual opponents, ITA top 100, UTR and the Coaches' recommended seeding order to seed the tournament.
The Aggies took care of business in Raleigh before thinking about Williamsburg. They started with a convincing No. 2 doubles win as Cielo Tapia-Cruz and Nuria Sanz defeated Anja Antonijevic and Sevval Ozseker 6-1. Then, Isabela Romanichen and Lana Caculovic gave the Aggies the doubles point with a 6-3 win over Prerana Koirala and Dana Moreno.
Nour Gueblaoui and Asima Sazan stopped their No. 3 doubles match after the Aggies clinched the doubles point with the duo leading 5-4 over Jessa Michieli and Chetna Kumari.
Tapia-Cruz had to retire in singles play before completing her No. 2 singles matchup with Prerana as the Bears tied the match at 1. But the Aggies got back on track with a Sazan win at No. 6 singles. She defeated Hafsa Sanhaji 6-1, 6-0, to give the Aggies a 2-1 lead. Sazan ends her regular season at 7-6.
Caculovic enters the CAA tournament with a 10-3 record after she defeated Moreno 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles. A&T clinched its eighth win of the season as Romanichen took down Michieli 7-5, 6-1 at No. 4 singles. Limited by injuries this season, Romanichen finished her regular season at 4-2.
Sanz (No. 3 singles) and Gueblaoui (No. 5 singles) had their matches go unfinished. Sanz won her first set 6-3 over Antonijevic but trailed 4-3 in the second. Gueblaoui led 6-3, 5-3 before her match ended against Ozseker.
The Aggies went 1-2 in the CAA this season, beating the CAA tournament's 12th-seeded Towson Tigers but losing to No. 4 seed Elon and second-seeded Delaware. Hampton comes into the tournament at 8-10 and winners of three straight. The Pirates went 1-2 in the CAA, beating Towson and losing to Elon and William & Mary.
If A&T can beat Hampton on Thursday, they will advance to face top-seeded William & Mary Friday, April 21, at 9 a.m. The Tribe is 12-5 overall and 5-0 in league play. The CAA tournament is a single-elimination 12-team event, with the championship match scheduled for Sunday, April 23, at noon.
