Barry Wins NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship
A sixteen-hour delay wasn’t enough to deter the Barry University women’s tennis team from winning their first-ever national championship over the Lynn University Knights on Sunday afternoon by a score of 5-3. Though play was stopped on Saturday afternoon, the Bucs came out with force on Sunday morning and took one doubles match and four singles matches to win the school’s ninth national championship in school history.
It was fitting that the final point came down to the top singles flight where senior co-captain, and third-ranked ranked, Barbi Pocza, was engaged in a three-set battle with No. 5 Magdalena Ekert. Pocza was flawless in the first set, taking all six games for a first-set win.
Ekert took the win in the second set by a 6-3 score. Pocza took the first game, but Ekert took the next two and two of the final three to take the set win.
With the Bucs up 4-3, and Laura Boguet still engaged in her own three-set battle with No. 32 Jessica Yanoff, Pocza and Ekert traded games back and forth through 3-3. It was all Pocza in the final three, however, breaking Ekert twice to take the 6-3 win in the second set and Barry’s final point for the national championship.
The Bucs started the match in doubles action on Saturday before the match was called for the night due to weather. Doubles action finished on Sunday morning with Barry taking one point and Lynn taking two.
The second-ranked duo of Pocza and Angie Werschel beat No. 4 Eleonora Iannozzi and Ioana Ivan 8-6. Prior to the delay on Saturday, the Bucs trailed 6-4. The team took all four games on Sunday morning, breaking the Knights twice, for the 8-6 win.
At number two doubles, No. 22 Boguet and Alex Gwizdowski lost 8-5 to eleventh-ranked Ekert and Isabell Raich. They were down 7-2 after Saturday. On Sunday, they took the first three, but lost the final game.
At No. 3, Julie Stas and Olivia Matuszak lost 8-4 to Jessica Yanoff and Andrea Berkova. Lynn took the first two games then gave one to Barry. The Knights next took four straight and won two of the last five for the win.
The remaining Buccaneer points came at singles in flights three, four and six. It was freshman Mona Mansour who earned Barry’s second point to tie it up at 2-2. Mansour was dominant over Aleksis Vukadinovic, winning 6-0 and 6-1.
Moments later, Barry took a 3-2 lead as No. 44 Caroline Wendling upset No. 15 Raich in straight sets. Wendling took her flight 6-0, 6-1.
The match was tied again at 3-3 when No. 36 Werschel lost 6-2, 6-1 to No. 9 Iannozi.
Matuszak continued her success over No. 27 Ivan. Matuszak downed Lynn’s No. 4 6-4, 6-0 in the fourth flight. Matuszak broke Ivan twice in the first set. Later in the first, Ivan broke Matuszak once to put the score of the second set at 5-4. On serve, Matuszak took a 40-15 game to take the first set. In the second set, she was flawless, winning 6-0 to take the set and give Barry a 4-3 lead.
Boguet’s match with Yanoff went unfinished. Yanoff took the first set 5-7. Boguet dominated the second 6-2, and the pair was tied 3-3 in the third when the match ended.
For the Buccaneers, this is their first NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship in school history and the school’s ninth overall.