No. 41 Women’s Tennis Earns Top Seed in the East for the NCAA Tournament

Women's Tennis | 4/24/2018 12:00:00 AM

Tweet #GBCLightning

Goldey-Beacom's 41st-ranked women's tennis team today learned it will be the top seed in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament and has earned a bye into the championship's second round.

GBC will play Sunday at noon against the winner of Saturday's first-round match between fourth-seeded Concordia (NY) and fifth-seeded Adelphi. Saturday's match takes place at 1:00 pm.

Both aforementioned matches will be held on the campus of West Chester University in West Chester, PA. The address is 855 South New Street, West Chester, PA 19383.

The winner of Sunday's match advances to the "Sweet 16," which takes place May 8 against an opponent to be determined in Surprise, AZ.

It has been another banner year for Goldey-Beacom (16-2, 8-0 CACC), which defeated Wilmington (DE), 5-3, on October 22 for its second consecutive Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference title and seventh trip to the NCAA Tournament. The squad was the top seed in the CACC Tournament for the second straight year, has won 17 consecutive regular-season league matches dating to 2015, appeared in the conference final in back-to-back years for the first time since going three straight seasons from 2009-11 and notched its best start in team history at 12-0.

The team has had many bright spots in this banner year. One of them is Fredrika Regner (Langaryd, Sweden), who was named the CACC Rookie of the Year and owns the school's single-season record with 20 doubles triumphs (20-4). She also has 17 singles victories (17-3), tied for the second most for one season in team annals.

Regner and sophomore Anna Hortelano Pey (Castelldefels, Spain) teamed to make the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) East Region final last fall in doubles and earlier this season were ranked as high as 35th in the country. The latter, who was named first team all-conference a second straight year and was picked to the all-tournament team, is 16-5 in singles this year, 16-3 in doubles and competed in the ITA East Region semifinals.

Lotte Lesscher y Post (Arnhem, Netherlands) is ranked ninth in the East in singles and has paired with fellow freshman Catarina Zheng (Oporto, Portugal) to go 16-5 in doubles, earning a No. 4 ranking in the East, and played in the ITA East Region semifinals. Zheng is 11th in the East with a 17-3 singles mark and Anna Hortelano Pey is 12th.

Sophomore Silvia Hortelano Pey (Castelldefels, Spain) is 10-2 in doubles and 10-6 in singles.

All of this helped Joe Kissel to be named CACC Coach of the Year for a fourth time and United States Tennis Association Middle States College Coach of the Year, his third straight USTA honor.

GBC last season defeated Southern New Hampshire in the first round for the program's second NCAA Tournament win. It is the only women's program in school history to win an NCAA Tournament contest.

Print Friendly Version