RICHARDSON, Texas - No. 14 Trinity University Women's Tennis took 16th-ranked University of Redlands (CA) to the wire Saturday in its NCAA III Regional Championship bout on the campus of University of Texas-Dallas.
The Tigers (14-9) played through four three-set singles matches after taking a one-point advantage in doubles through a pair of regionally-ranked victories for the duos of Megan Flores (Houston, Texas / Clear Lake) and Cate Cushing (Colleyville, Texas / Colleyville Heritage) in the first line, 8-1, and the rookie partners Olivia Kim (Phoenix, Ariz. / Desert Mountain) and Ruth Hill (Abilene, Texas / Abilene) in the second, 8-5.
Kim carried the doubles momentum through the intermission with a tone-setting 6-2 mark in her first set, which rode through a 7-5 second-set victory for a 3-1 lead in favor of Trinity.
Sophomore Ellie Hughes (Austin, Texas / Vandegrift) was the first of the four three-setters to check in Saturday as she rebounded from a 6-2 setback with tallies of 6-4 and 6-1 for now a 4-1 margin for the Tigers.
All remaining singles matches saw respective first sets fall in favor of the Bulldogs, but a lineup-wide push began as Cushing, Hill and sophomore Elodie Richard (Allen, Texas / Allen) all simultaneously flipped their scripts, most notably on Richard's second-set shutout. The third frames, however, were not kind to the Tigers as attrition began to set in, as only Hill's third set came within two games on a 7-5 tally.
The 2022 campaign concluded Saturday for No. 14 Trinity Women's Tennis with a 14-9 overall record, undefeated against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference opponents both in the regular season and in the league's tournament in Kerrville, Texas two weeks ago.
Under the direction of recently-named SCAC Coach of the Year, Drew Cohn, the Tigers collected the program's 24th SCAC title and its first berth into the NCAA III tournament since the 2019 campaign this season.
The Tigers will play host to Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional action this fall, with the remainder of the 2022 fall slate to be determined and published later this summer.
