Box Score John Carroll used an early lead in doubles to set the stage for a dominant performance in singles, and fittingly a senior put the finishing touches on a 5-1 win over Ohio Northern that secured a third consecutive Ohio Athletic Conference tournament title.
Box Score
In the league championship final held at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Mason, Ohio, the top two seeds were meeting for the second time in a week. In the regular season meeting, JCU defeated Ohio Northern, 8-1.
In the Saturday morning final, John Carroll was quick to jump out to its first point asÂ
Lauren O'Malley and
Madisyn Rini won the last eight games of their match to win 8-1 at #1 doubles over Kaleigh Cummins and Sabine Worthoff. The twin senior sisters
Nicolette Bourlas and
Natalie Bourlas at added to JCU's lead with a dominant #2 doubles win, 8-4, over their ONU opponents.Â
The next to finish wasÂ
Alyssa Krupp and
Jennifer Stroyne, who despite valiant efforts fell to Ashley Ochsenhirt and Katie Curry at #3 doubles, the Polar Bear's lone win in the match.
In the singles competition, O'Malley steamrolled Ochsenhirt by a 6-1, 6-0 score in the #1 match, and was followed soon after by Krupp, who ran past Curry by a 6-2-6-3 score in the #5 match to set up John Carroll with a 4-1 advantage and needing just one more point to clinch.
The task to clinch fell to
Molly Traverso in the #4 match, and the senior delivered. She finished off a 6-3 6-1 triumph over Cummins to secure a third consecutive league title for the Blue Streaks and their 11th overall. John Carroll winning previously claimed tournament crowns in 1991, 1992, 1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2016 and 2017.
With the victory today, John Carroll will earn the Ohio Athletic Conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Division III Championship which begins next week.
John Carroll is now 18-6 on the season while Ohio Northern wraps up at 19-7.
The Blue Streaks are the first team to win three consecutive OAC tournament titles since Wittenberg won three in a row from 1987-1989.
