Princeton University Athletics
Princeton University
Cornell
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Women's Tennis Wins Outright Ivy Title, Clinches NCAA Bid
April 19, 2015 | Women's Tennis
Above: Post-match interview with Amanda Muliawan
The doubles point went to Princeton Sunday at the Lenz Tennis Center, and then freshman Katrine Steffensen yielded only two games to her opponent on court four for another Princeton point.
Lindsay Graff had a tough fight from her opponent, New Jersey native Dena Tanenbaum, but the Tigers' No. 1 player closed out the match to put Princeton one singles win away from going back to the NCAA tournament for the second straight year.
That fourth point, though, wasn't easy to find. Princeton had lost all four first sets on the remaining courts, and Amanda Muliawan lost the first two games of her third set on court two. Cornell picked up a point from Marika Cusick on court three to make it 3-1 and take away one of the possibilities for Princeton to clinch.
While Dorothy Tang and Katie Goepel battled back toward forcing third sets on courts five and six, Amanda Muliawan got it going, winning six straight games to finish a win against Alexandra D'Ascenzo and capture that fourth point. Game, set, match, outright Ivy League title, automatic NCAA tournament bid.
The outright Ivy League title is Princeton's sixth in the round-robin era, which began in 1983. Princeton also won the league without sharing the title in 1993, 1994, 2000, 2010 and 2014.
The Tigers finished the regular season 12-8 but won 12 of their last 15 matches after an 0-5 start. Only a 4-3 loss at Columbia Friday prevented Princeton from becoming the first team since Harvard in 2005 and 2006 to have back-to-back 7-0 Ivy League seasons.
As they did last year, the Tigers will have to stay sharp over the next few weeks, with the NCAA tournament not set to begin until the second weekend in May. It didn't seem to bother Princeton much a year ago, with the Tigers getting their first NCAA tournament win in program history in defeating Arizona State at Alabama and then coming with in two third sets of knocking off the national No. 2 Crimson Tide.
Where the Tigers will aim for an encore is yet to be determined. The NCAA tournament selection show will be streamed on NCAA.com at 5 p.m. Tuesday, April 28.
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(40) Princeton (12-8, 6-1 Ivy) vs. (75) Cornell (9-9, 3-4 Ivy) Apr. 19, 2015 • Lenz Tennis Center |
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3 |
Doubles
| 1 | Graff/Wolff (P) | DNF | D'Ascenzo/Tanenbaum (C) | 6-3 P |
| 2 | Muliawan/Tang (P) | |
Shah/L. Stewart (C) | 8-2 |
| 3 | Emily Hahn/Steffensen (P) | |
Stevens/J. Stewart (C) | 8-5 |
Singles
| 1 | Lindsay Graff (P) | |
Dena Tanenbaum (C) | 6-1, 6-4 |
| 2 | Amanda Muliawan (P) | |
Alexandra D'Ascenzo (C) | 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 |
| 3 | Alanna Wolff (P) | |
Marika Cusick (C) | 7-6(6), 6-2 |
| 4 | Katrine Steffensen (P) | |
Lizzie Stewart (C) | 6-1, 6-2 |
| 5 | Dorothy Tang (P) | |
Priyanka Shah (C) | 7-6(5), 7-6(2) |
| 6 | Katie Goepel (P) | |
Jane Stewart (C) | 7-5, 2-6, (10-0) |
| Match notes: The match on court six played a tiebreaker third set since the overall match had been clinched ... This was Princeton's 21st consecutive win over Cornell, with Cornell's last win in the series coming in 1997. |
| Next match: NCAA tournament, time/location/opponent TBD, May 8 or 9 |
| Order of finish: Doubles: 2,3; Singles: 4,1,3,2,5,6 |
ITA rankings in parentheses