DUDLEY, Mass. – The No. 1 Nichols College women's tennis team is set to take on No. 2 Endicott Monday afternoon in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Championship at the Robinson Tennis Courts. Select matches will also be livestreamed.
WATCH: Livestream of select matches
The strongest women's tennis rivalry in the CCC will square off for the seventh time in the last eight seasons in the CCC Tournament – including the fifth time in the CCC Championship.
Endicott (11-3, 7-1 CCC) has eliminated the Bison in each of the past five seasons on its way to five-consecutive conference championships. Nichols won the title in 2010 in which they defeated Roger Williams, 5-0, to claim their only CCC Championship in program history.
The Bison defeated No. 4 Gordon in the Semifinal Round, 5-1, to advance to the championship while the Gulls took care of business against No. 3 Roger Williams, 5-1, to earn their spot.
In the regular season matchup the Bison broke their five-match losing streak to the Gulls, winning in Beverly, 5-3. Nichols led 2-1 after doubles – losing at No. 1 doubles in a tiebreaker – before sweeping through the top three singles flights to hand Endicott its first conference loss in 23 matches. It marked only the third loss in conference for 2016 CCC Co-Coach of the Year Jeremy Howard.
The Bison (13-3, 8-0 CCC) are led by a conference-best eight All-CCC student-athletes – including CCC Player and Rookie of the year freshman
Amarie Settiwongse (Bangkok, Thailand). Settiwongse was also named CCC First Team-Singles as well as First Team-Doubles along with partner, freshman
Danielle Mandel (Fair Lawn, N.J.). Junior
Alanna Judd (Westborough, Mass.) represented the Bison on the CCC Second Team-Singles list while she and freshman
Isabelle Leonardi (North Hampton, N.H.) received Second Team-Doubles accolades.
Freshman
Megan Nathanson (Scarborough, Maine) and junior
Daniela Saldarriaga (Medellin, Colombia) were named CCC Third Team-Singles while the duo of senior captain
Cristina Szepanski (Windsor Locks, Conn.) and freshman
Lindsey Kaplan (Boca Raton, Fla.) earned a spot on the CCC Third Team-Doubles.
The Gulls saw six student-athletes named All-CCC. Sophomore Hayley Barnett (Marlboro, N.J.) – CCC First Team-Singles and Second Team-Doubles – leads a talented group of Gulls looking to claim their sixth conference championship in a row. The doubles pair of junior Maxine Bergstein (Hingham, Mass.) and senior Mackenzie Rhodes (Rye, N.H.) will also be Gulls to watch as they were named CCC First Team-Doubles and provided the lone doubles win from their match with the Bison in mid-September.
The Bison and Gulls are scheduled to face-off at 2:00 p.m. on Monday at the Robinson Tennis Courts.
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