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RedHawks clinch share of MAC title

By Jordan Rinard, Senior Staff Writer

After winning its 12th straight conference match and eighth consecutive match overall, the Miami University women's tennis team clinched a share of the Mid-American Conference title Saturday. The title is their seventh consecutive regular season championship and 21st overall. The RedHawks (13-6, 7-0 MAC) downed Bowling Green State University 7-0.

"We won pretty easily today, 7-0," head coach Yana Carollo said." We played well and did our best. We need to continue to work on the same things: having aggressive doubles, playing at the net and putting pressure on the opponents. We didn't have a lot of competition today, but we're preparing to compete against the tougher teams."

Senior Ramona Costea and sophomore Andreea Badileanu continued their dominant doubles stretch, winning their 13th consecutive match in a 6-0 decision against sophomore Antonina Farrar and freshman Emily Witt.

Because Bowling Green (0-15, 0-6 MAC) had only five players, the Falcons were forced to forfeit one of their doubles matchups.

The 'Hawks won all five singles matches in straight sets. Senior Alix Thurman recorded a 6-1, 6-2 victory against freshman Megan Miller. Senior Christine Guerrazzi added another 6-1, 6-2 win over sophomore Harley Hutchison for her seventh straight singles victory.

Freshman Nelli Ponomareva beat Witt 6-3, 6-1, and freshman Hannah Shteyn defeated Farrar 6-1, 6-0. Freshman Erin Rodriguez earned her second MAC victory in a 6-0, 6-0 triumph against freshman Sydney Seeley. Junior Ana Rajkovic was credited with a win by default due to the Falcons' lack of players.

"It was a great match," Guerrazzi said. "Bowling Green had only five players, so we got a point right from the start. We played pretty well and kept our momentum going through the whole match. We need to keep our momentum high going into next weekend, and we need to keep focusing on the game plan."

The RedHawks return to Oxford Sunday for their home finale against Ball State University (11-4, 1-1 MAC). The matches begin at 1 p.m. It will be the final home match of Costea, Guerrazzi and Thurman's collegiate careers. Miami can clinch the regular season MAC title outright with a win or a loss by Western Michigan University against Northern Illinois University.

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