QU Women's Tennis Heads to MAAC Championships in Search of Fifth Straight Title

Saturday, April 28

Mercer County Tennis Center, New Jersey

2:00 PM

Quinnipiac University

Niagara University (Semifinals)

QU Women's Tennis Heads to MAAC Championships in Search of Fifth Straight Title

4/24/2018 10:50:00 AM | Women's Tennis

By: QU Athletic Communications

HAMDEN, Conn. — The Quinnipiac women's tennis team, which has won all four MAAC titles since joining the league in 2013-14, will try to make it five in a row when it heads to the Mercer County Tennis Center in West Windsor, New Jersey for the 2018 MAAC Championships on Saturday and Sunday.

Quinnipiac opens the tournament on Saturday as the top seed, facing fourth-seeded Niagara at 2 p.m., while the other semifinal pits second-seeded Marist against third-seeded Siena. The two semifinal winners will meet on Sunday at 2 p.m. for the MAAC Championship and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The Bobcats have still never lost a match to a MAAC opponent since joining the league, compiling a 45-0 record since its inaugural year, including 37-0 in the regular season and 8-0 in the conference tournament. Quinnipiac has been pushed in the conference tournament the past two years, coming back to take a 4-3 win over Marist in 2016 and then fighting off a tough challenge from Siena last year for a 4-2 victory.

It has been largely a new-look team this year, though, as the Bobcats graduated four decorated seniors off of last year's squad and have consistently played three freshmen in their singles lineup this year. Included on that list is Dominique Vasile, a freshman from Bingham Hills, Michigan, who emerged as the program's regular at No. 1 singles in the second half of the season. Vasile went undefeated in MAAC play at No. 1 and heads into the postseason with a 16-5 record in singles, including 11-1 in her last 12 matches, with the only loss coming at Harvard.

The Bobcats do have the luxury of some veteran leadership, as juniors Jennifer Lu and Proyfon Lohaphaisan hold down the No. 2 and No. 5 singles spots. Lu was named the Most Outstanding Performer in last year's MAAC Championships after a perfect 4-0 weekend in singles and doubles, while Lohaphaisan earned a key singles win in last year's championship match against Siena as well. Both Lu and Lohaphaisan reached the 100-win milestone on the same day, a 6-1 win at Siena on April 13 in a rematch of last year's finals.

Freshman Payton Bradley is Quinnipiac's usual No. 3 singles player, while also teaming with Lu at No. 1 doubles down the stretch. She has won 11 matches on the year, and is 4-0 at No. 1 doubles with Lu and 5-0 at No. 1 doubles overall. Sophomore Layla Rodriguez has been holding down the No. 4 spot in the lineup, where she is 6-0 in league play this season, and she has recently teamed with junior Alexandra Mircea at No. 3 doubles to go 3-0 over the last two weeks.

The sixth spot in the lineup has been shared by two freshmen, Courtney Nash and Stephanie Yanosov. Nash has gone 5-0 in singles in conference play, while Yanosov is 4-0 (and a perfect 7-0 in dual matches overall). Nash has 15 total singles wins, as this year's freshman class has combined for 58 singles wins overall, helping to fill the void left by last year's seniors.

Quinnipiac and Niagara met in the regular season on March 24 at North Haven Health and Racquet Club, with the Purple Eagles taking the doubles point from the Bobcats for an early 1-0 lead. However, Quinnipiac responded to sweep all six singles courts for a 6-1 win, with Bradley and Rodriguez each going three sets at No. 3 and No. 4 and Lohaphaisan winning a second-set tiebreaker to secure her win at No. 5 (6-3, 7-6).