The Bearcats won 13 matches this year.
Fourteen would have made them champions.
The Binghamton women’s tennis team (13-6, 4-1 America East) defeated the Hartford Hawks (0-14, 0-5), 4-0, and UMBC Retrievers (15-4, 4-2) 4-3 respectively to reach the finals of the America East Conference Tournament this past weekend, where it fell 4-2 to the Boston University Terriers (11-7, 4-0). Had the Bearcats won the match, they would have earned a spot in the 2008 NCAA Tournament.
The Bearcats began their campaign for an AE Title in solid fashion on Friday. In the quarterfinals, they ousted Hartford 4-0 in a match reminiscent of their 7-0 defeat of the team in the regular season. Freshman Yulia Smirnova and sophomores Danyelle Shapiro and Erica Rosenblum won their singles matches, and the Bearcats also swept the three doubles matches to take the doubles point. Stony Brook beat Albany in the other quarterfinal.
In the semifinals on Saturday, the Bearcats went up against UMBC, the same team that ended BU’s season in last year’s semifinals. Binghamton made sure this time would be different thanks its three freshmen: Edelman, Lauren Bates and Smirnova. Edelman led Ana Mungo 6-1, when Mungo retired with an injury. Bates fought to a tough 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 victory over Ana Chen. Smirnova also won her match, defeating Pascaline Cette 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Rosenblum also won a critical match against Joy Adawami 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 to help clinch the match. Binghamton’s 4-3 victory over UMBC set up an encounter with Boston, the 14-time defending champion, in the finals.
Against the Terriers on Sunday, the Bearcats began the match in fine fashion by taking the doubles point. Edelman and Bates posted an impressive 9-8 win at the top doubles spot over Francine Whu and Vanessa Steiner. Smirnova and Shapiro also won 9-8 at the third position over Elizabeth Corrao and Yana Sadovskaya. However, the Terriers out-classed the Bearcats in singles to take the conference title. Smirnova posted the Bearcats’ lone singles victory over Sadovskaya 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Binghamton may have not defeated Boston, but its players were pleased with their overall performance.
“Today we played really well,” said Edelman. “We fought hard, cheered loudly for each other and gave it our all. I’m really proud of the team.”
This season was supposedly a “rebuilding” year for the Bearcats. The team’s top two players, Zeynep Altinay and Lia Kushnirovich, had graduated, and their record-setting careers left with them. The team’s third-best player, Juliana Umeki, transferred to Jacksonville University.
But the Bearcats outdid their performance from a year ago, and believe that their experience this year will translate to more success in the future.
“Just one more year of experience will be a huge difference,” Rosenblum said. “Now that we’ve all been through it and know what it’s all about, we will be more eager for it [the conference title] next year.”
“I’m excited for next year; it‘s going to be a new beginning,” Edelman said.