GEORGETOWN, Texas – The No. 16 Trinity University women's tennis team won its 10th Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship in the past 11 years by defeating Southwestern University 5-2 in Sunday's conference tournament final.

The Tigers are 16-4 this season after the victory, which is also the 25th overall SCAC Championship for the program – second only to Trinity's men's tennis program for the most titles in any spot in conference history by one team. This is also the seventh straight season that Trinity and Southwestern have met in the SCAC Final, with the Tigers winning all but the 2021 matchup. Head Coach Drew Cohn has now led the Tigers to back-to-back conference titles in his third year with the team.

Trinity took two out of three doubles matches to take the early lead in today's final, beginning with identical 8-4 victories by Trinity Levy (Camarillo, Calif. / Weil Tennis Academy) and Cate Cushing (Colleyville, Texas / Heritage) at line two, and Ruth Hill (Abilene, Texas / Abilene) and Olivia Kim (Phoenix, Ariz. / Desert Mountain) at line one. Hill and Kim came in as the West Region's third-ranked doubles team and knocked off the 10th-ranked Southwestern team of Nina Mitrofanova and Alli Ziehm. The Pirates narrowly avoided the sweep by winning line three doubles 8-6 over the Tiger team of Brooke Belitz (Scottsdale, Ariz. / Notre Dame Prep) and Ellie Hughes (Austin, Texas / Vandegrift).

Southwestern seemed to carry the momentum of that doubles win into singles play as Ziehm scored a straight-set win for the Pirates against Trinity's Ella Cummings (Albuquerque, N.M. / Albuquerque Academy) to even the match at 2-2. The Tigers were unfazed by the initial singles result, with Kim and Hill both earning wins over regionally-ranked opponents to take the advantage up to 4-2. Kim, ranked 21st in the region in singles, defeated No. 24 Emma Kesterson 6-4, 7-5 at line two; while fifth-ranked Hill took out No. 14 Mitrofanova 7-5, 7-5 at line one. Hughes lost the opening set at line five, but forced a third set after bouncing back with a 6-2 win in the second. Levy and Cushing won their initial sets at lines three and four, respectively. While Levy was beaten in the second and played into a third set, Cushing was able to clinch the Trinity victory with her 7-6, 7-5 win.

Up Next
Trinity's victory also results in another trip to the NCAA Playoffs, as the Tigers earn the SCAC's automatic bid to the postseason tournament. The NCAA is scheduled to release the entire tournament field by noon (ET) on Monday, May 1, and the Tigers will find out their next opponent and destination at that time.