VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — No. 44 Averett University women's tennis is headed to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament championship on Sunday after beating No. 3 seed Sweet Briar College 5-0 in the semifinals Saturday.
Averett (15-5), the No. 2 seed, will face off with No. 1 seed Washington and Lee University (19-1) — ranked No. 9 nationally — in Sunday's ODAC final set for 1 p.m. at Virginia Wesleyan University's Everett Tennis Center.
To get to its first-ever ODAC championships match, the Cougars had to take down Sweet Briar (18-4) on the semifinals. Averett, which beat the Vixens 8-1 during the regular season, got off to a solid start by winning all three doubles matches. At No. 1, junior
Keira Gunning and freshman
Siddhi Khandelwal won 8-3. The duo of sophomore
Brenda Poulakidas and freshman
Jennika Jaison pulled out an 8-6 win at No. 2 doubles, while sophomore
Elisa Battermann and freshman
Dilara Sultanova won 8-5 at the third doubles spot.
Needing to win just two of the six singles matches to clinch, Averett wasted no time. Sultanova won easily at the No. 4 spot, 6-0, 6-1. The Cougars where ahead in all other singles matches, but it was Jason who officially clinched the victory with her win at No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-2.
With the win, Averett picked up its 15 th win of the season, which is the most the program's recorded history. The Cougars make the conference final for the first time since their final season as members of the USA South Athletic Conference in 2022.
Nationally ranked Washington and Lee also advanced in the first match of the day, beating No. 4 seed Shenandoah University 5-0. The Generals have won the last 20 ODAC Tournament championships entering Sunday's title match.
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