Women's Tennis To Compete At NEAC West Tennis Tournament
2016 NEAC West Division Team and Individual Tennis Tournament
TEAM TOURNAMENT
Semifinals - Wednesday, Apr. 27
Penn St.-Abington vs. Keuka - 6 p.m.
Penn St.-Berks vs. Wells - 6 p.m.
Championship - Thursday, Apr. 28
No. 1/4 Seed vs. No. 2/3 Seed - 10 a.m.
INDIVIDUAL TOURNAMENT
Doubles Tournament - Thursday, Apr. 28 - 2 p.m.
Individual Tournament - Friday, Apr. 29 - 10 a.m.
DIRECTIONS: Birchwood Tennis Club - Clarks Summit, Pa.
PDF: Official NEAC Tournament Singles and Doubles Seeding
GANSEVOORT, N.Y. – The Wells College women's tennis team has qualified for the North Eastern Athletic Conference West Division Tournament for the fifth-straight season and will compete as a team and individually this Wednesday, Apr. 27 through Friday, Apr. 29 at the Birchwood Tennis Club in Clarks Summit, Pa.
Upon arrival on Wednesday, the No. 3-seeded Express will take on the No. 2-ranked Nittany Lions from Penn St.-Berks in the team portion of the tournament at 6 p.m. From there, Wells will compete in the championship or play a consolation match on Friday at 10 a.m. between either the No. 1-seeded Nittany Lions from Penn St.-Abington or the fourth-ranked Wolfpack from Keuka College.
The individual tournament will begin on Thursday at 2 p.m. with doubles matches. The three-day tournament will conclude on Friday at 10 a.m. with singles matches.
To earn the conference's automatic qualifying bid to the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Tournament, the NEAC West Division Championship winner will battle the NEAC East Division Champions from Colby-Sawyer College on Sunday, May 8 at 11:30 a.m.
The Wells women's tennis team earned the College's first-ever NCAA tournament berth following the 2007 season. Dating back to the very first NEAC postseason that same year, Wells has missed the playoffs only once (2010-11) and will look to secure its first NEAC title in the sport of women's tennis. The Express won four-straight Private College Athletic Conference champions from 1977-80 and has finished as the NEAC runner-up team on three separate occasions (2007, 2012, 2013).
Penn St.-Berks has won four of the five match-ups between the two programs in the NEAC postseason with the most recent Wells win coming on Apr. 25, 2009. During the regular season, the Nittany Lions eked out a 5-4 win in Aurora after winning three singles matches and the first two doubles tilts.
Senior Brooke Benedetto (Williamstown, N.Y.) enters the individual tournament as the top-ranked player at No. 1 singles – additionally, she joins teammate Yuna Furusawa (Hirakata, Osaka, Japan) as the second-seeded tandem at No. 1 doubles. Sophomore Kamarie Maturine (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was seeded fourth at No. 2 singles, joining sophomore Kate Wells (Gardner, Mass.) as the second-ranked squad at No. 3 doubles.
Senior Kevisha Hunt (Germantown, Md.) is slotted third at No. 3 singles and will join junior Nicole Sanborn (Onondaga, N.Y.) as the second-ranked No. 2 doubles duo. Sanborn was the fourth-ranked No. 4 singles player while Furusawa will represent Wells as the third-seeded No. 5 singles player. The Express will also be represented at No. 6 singles by Kate Wells, seeded third.
Benedetto, the only player from Wells that enters play as the top seed, has won NEAC titles at No. 2 and No. 4 singles in her career. Playing at the top singles flight for Wells in 2015-16, Benedetto has racked up a 11-1 record while remaining undefeated against conference opponents (8-0). In her final doubles match of the regular season, Benedetto extended the all-time program record for career doubles wins to 30 and will join Furusawa as the No. 2-ranked squad.
Maturine, last season's No. 3 singles champion in the conference, is ranked fourth heading into this week's individual tournament. Posting four wins at No. 2 singles in 2015-16, she will oppose Penn St.-Abington's Amanda Shulski who defeated Hunt earlier in the season by a 6-2, 6-3 margin. Maturine and her teammate Wells are undefeated in four No. 3 doubles matches.
Hunt, the team's lone senior alongside Benedetto, has won 18 career singles matches and has picked up nine of those victories this year. She has posted an impressive 7-2 record at No. 3 singles and has won eight of her last 10 matches heading into the postseason. Hunt and Sanborn are the second-ranked No. 2 doubles squad, having compiled a 6-3 record as a team.
Furusawa, in her first year with the team, has played at three-different singles flights but has done most of her damage in the No. 5 position with a 4-2 overall record. Her 5-2 mark against league opponents is tied for third place on the Express.
Sanborn has posted 10 singles victories in her three-year career. Last season, she earned Third Team All-Conference honors after rebounding from a semifinals loss to earn an 8-5 win in the consolation match. Kate Wells has won four-straight matches heading into the tournament, posting five singles wins for the Express in the spring – she has 11 singles wins in two years.
