BRUNSWICK, Ga.- The Ave Maria University women's tennis team could not be the giant-killer on Friday, falling 4-0 to No. 1 Keiser University in the finals of The Sun Conference Tournament in Brunswick, Georgia. The Gyrenes, who were playing for the conference title for the first time in program history, were competitive in several matches against the Seahawks, but could not deny the nation's top team their fifth consecutive conference championship.
The Seahawks claimed the doubles point quickly, winning the matches at the bottom two flights by scores of 6-0 and 6-1, respectively. The Gyrenes, however, were inching towards a victory at the top flight. Ave Maria's team of Lara Teodoro and Vitoria Barandas, ranked 20th in the nation, held a 4-2 lead over Keiser's Isabella Perez and Florencia Araya, ranked third. The lead was a validation of the result from two weeks ago, where Teodoro and Barandas defeated Perez and Araya in West Palm Beach.
Keiser took just over an hour to claim the three singles wins needed to clinch another Sun Conference championship. The Seahawks picked up victories at the first, second, and sixth flights, with the trio of Elyse Lavender, Sun Conference Player of the Year Violet Apisah, and Isabella Perez surrendering just five total points to clinch the match for Keiser.
Ave Maria's best performance of the day came at the fourth singles flight from Barandas. The sophomore continued her run of stellar play, claiming a 7-6 tiebreaker win over Keiser's Yvette Schmucker in the first. Barandas had claimed the first point of the second set, as well, when Keiser claimed the clinching point of the match, ending all play.
The Gyrenes now await their seeding in next month's NAIA Tournament, which will be announced by the national office on Tuesday. As the fifth-ranked team in the nation, the Gyrenes are considered a likely contender for a bye in the first round of the tournament, granted to the tournament's top eight seeds. A bye would send the Gyrenes to the round of 16 for the first time in school history, where AMU would seek the first national tournament win in the history of the program.
