St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Xavier
No. 3 Red Storm Advances to BIG EAST Final
4/26/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
INDIANAPOLIS - Hours after the Red Storm men's squad clinched its second-straight appearance in the BIG EAST championship, the St. John's women's team also booked its trip to the conference final, downing Xavier, 4-3, on Saturday night.
St. John's will face off against top-seeded DePaul in the conference championship on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Red Storm found itself facing an early deficit in Indianapolis, dropping two-straight doubles matches to fall in a 1-0 hole.
Natalie Vavulina kicked things off in singles play for the Red Storm, claiming victory in the number three slot in straight-sets, 6-2, 6-1 over Amina Ismail.
Anastasia Polyakova gave St. John's its first lead of the match in second singles, topping Alex Brinker 6-2, 6-1 to give the Red Storm the advantage.
After dropping her first set 3-6 in the top singles position, Anna Morozova rallied back to claim victory, topping Sydney Liggins 6-1, 6-2 in sets two and three, respectively, to put the Red Storm within one point of a championship berth.
Facing elimination, Xavier rallied back to pick up wins in the fourth and fifth singles positions, knotting the score at three apiece.
With the count tied, the sixth singles slot became the deciding factor in the match. Irina Preotescu took the first set 6-4 over Xavier's Daniella Patton, but Patton fired back in the second set, 6-1, to send the contest to a decisive third. Preotescu came up big for the Red Storm under pressure, taking the third set 7-5 and punching her team's ticket to the BIG EAST championship.
The match, which was originally slated for 1 p.m., was delayed several hours due to inclement weather.
Players Mentioned
