YORK, PA – The York College women's tennis team made history on Saturday as they captured their first-ever MAC Commonwealth Tournament championship with a dramatic 5-4 win over second-seeded Lebanon Valley at Wisehaven Tennis Center in York.
Spartan sophomore Michaela Sentz earned the clinching victory with a second singles win for York.
The Spartans improve to 10-1 overall as they will now make their first-ever trip to the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Tournament. York has won eight in a row after their lone loss of the season to Wilkes on April 3.
The Spartans got off to a great start in the match as the first doubles tandem of Elsa Oestermarker and Lauren Ostermann earned an 8-4 win. The Spartan duo took an early lead in the match as they led 4-2. The teams would go back and forth before York was able to secure the first doubles match.
The Dutchmen earned the second doubles win as the pair of Madison Poladian and Emily Wilczek beat the York team of Michaela Sentz and Chloe Doyle 8-4.
Lebanon Valley then took the third doubles match in a very back-and-forth contest. The Spartan duo of Brianna Rohrer and Morrissey Walsh led 7-4 before the Dutchmen pair of Meridyth Sanders and Zoe Birch tied the set at seven. The Spartans went up 4-2 in the tiebreaker but LVC scored three of the next four points to knot the tiebreaker at five. The tiebreaker was tied again at six and at seven before the Dutchmen scored two straight to take the match in the tiebreaker, 9-7.
The singles matches were all tightly contested as five of the six flights went to three sets. Lebanon Valley pushed their overall lead to 3-1 as Sanders won the fifth singles match with Doyle, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 as they were the first singles match to finish.
Ostermann got the Spartans' first singles point of the match as she downed Poladian 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the third singles match as the York deficit shrunk to 3-2. Walsh came through big as she notched a 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 win in the sixth singles match to draw York even in the overall match at three.
York took a temporary 4-3 lead when Rohrer picked up the lone two-set singles win as she beat Emily Wilczek 6-3, 7-6 (7-0). The Dutchmen tied the contest at four as Jacqueline McBride won a great battle against Oestermarker as McBride outlasted the Spartan ace 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a well played match on both sides.
That left the match and the championship up to the second singles match as Sentz and Meredith Haas played a match that lasted almost three hours. Sentz and Haas consistently played long points while the two players slugging it out from the baseline. Sentz won the first set 6-3 but Haas blanked the Spartan sophomore in the second set, 6-0.
The third set began as the other singles matches were ending, putting the focus on the set that would decide the match and decide the 2021 MAC Championship.
The set was tied at one and again at two. Sentz took a 4-2 lead only to have Haas win the next game to make it 4-3. Sentz then won the final two games to capture the win. The Spartan team stormed the court to celebrate the first women's tennis title in Spartan history. It's the first time the Spartans had ever played in a conference championship game in school history.
Sentz was named the tournament MVP after she captured the championship sealing victory.
The Spartans now advance to the 2021 NCAA Division III Women's Tennis tournament. The tournament field will be announced on Monday at noon via www.ncaa.com.
