2015 Sunshine State Conference Tennis Championship Semifinals
No. 2 seed Sharks vs. No. 3 seed Saint Leo – Friday, April 24, 11:30 a.m.
MELBOURNE, Fla. – With
the release of the 2015 Sunshine State Conference tennis championship bracket on Monday, it was known that the No. 4 Nova Southeastern University Sharks earned the league's No. 2 seed and an opening-round bye. Now, they have found out their opponent: Saint Leo, Friday morning at 11:30 a.m.
The Sharks (18-1, 7-1 SSC) will play the host Lions, winners on Thursday over Florida Tech, 5-0. Saint Leo is No. 5 in the nation with a 17-4 overall mark, and are the SSC's No. 3 seed after a 6-2 regular season in-conference mark. One of their two losses came on March 1 when NSU took a 5-4 victory over the then-No. 3 Lions, on the very same courts the two teams will be competing on on Friday.
Saint Leo is fifth in the country and fourth in the South Region according to both the NCAA and ITA (the Sharks are currently No. 3 in each ranking). The ITA lists two SLU singles players and one doubles team among their top 20 and 10, respectively: Isabella Robbiani (No. 6) and Anastasia Wagner (No. 17), and Robbiani and Marie Benikrane (No. 5 in doubles). NSU had three singles and one doubles team recognized:
Sabrina Kierberg (Jr., Munich, Germany), a slot ahead of Robbiani in fifth;
Petra Jurova (Jr., Bratislava, Slovakia) in 10th; and
Irina Constantinide (Jr., Galati, Romania) 20th, while Jurova and Constantinide are No. 7 as a combo.
Should the Sharks take the semifinal win, they would advance to Saturday's title match at 9 a.m. Barry, No. 2 in the nation, is the tournament's top seed and earned the other quarterfinal bye. They defeated No. 6 Lynn (the fourth seed), on Friday to advance.
2015 Women's Tennis SSC Championship ScheduleThursday, April 23
9:00 a.m. – No. 4 Lynn (16-3, 5-3 SSC)
5, No. 5 Rollins (8-12, 4-4 SSC)
011:30 a.m. – No. 3 Saint Leo (16-4, 6-2 SSC)
5, No. 6 Florida Tech (14-9, 3-5 SSC)
0 Friday, April 24
9:00 a.m. – No. 1 Barry (18-1, 8-0 SSC)
5, vs. No. 4 Lynn
211:30 a.m. –
No. 2 SHARKS (18-1, 7-1 SSC) vs. No. 3 Saint Leo
Saturday, April 25
9:00 a.m. – No. 1 Barry vs. Winner of NSU and Saint Leo
