By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Elon won a Coastal Athletic Association Tournament championship for the first time in women’s tennis with Sunday’s 4-2 victory against three-time defending champion William & Mary at Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
The top-seeded Phoenix (19-5) prevailed in a pair of three-set singles matches when freshman Lisa Kranec won at No. 6 and sophomore Simone Bergeron knocked two-time CAA Player of the Year Hedda Gurholt by 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at No. 1.
Elon won the doubles point and also picked up on point from Heidi Bulger at No. 4 singles.
William & Mary (14-6) was in the finals for the 10th straight tournament.
Elon goes to the NCAA Tournament with an automatic bid. When the NCAA selections came out Monday, the Phoenix was assigned to the Knoxville Regional to face 10th-seeded and host Tennessee (17-7) on Friday afternoon. Pepperdine and Wake Forest meet in the other first-round match at that site. Duke, North Carolina, and North Carolina State are also regional hosts.
Men’s tennis
UNC Wilmington won its fifth consecutive CAA Tournament, edging Elon 4-2 in the final Sunday at Jimmy Powell Tennis Center.
The Seahawks (12-7) claimed the doubles point and then needed three sets for one singles victory and tiebreakers in two other singles triumphs.
Elon (11-8), which was in the title match for the fourth year in a row, received singles victories from Jack Curtis at No. 4 and Juan Sengariz at No. 6.
The Phoenix posted a 4-1 victory against Monmouth (19-4) in Saturday’s semifinals.
Softball
Elon stayed in the CAA softball race by winning two of three games against visiting UNCW at Hunt Softball Park.
Second-place Elon (27-17 overall, 19-5 CAA), which trails Delaware by one game, goes to third-place Campbell (33-16, 18-6) for the final regular-season series Thursday through Saturday in Buies Creek.
The series vs. UNCW was capped by Sunday’s 2-1 victory on Senior Day. Southern Alamance alum Isley Duggins was the winning pitcher with 1 2/3 innings of relief to improve her record to 4-1.
Southern graduate Greta Hessenthaler walked and scored the first Elon run. Eastern Alamance graduate Reagan Hartley had one of the four hits for the Phoenix.
Hartley went 2-for-3 with two runs batted in when the Phoenix won 9-1 in Friday night’s series opener. UNCW (25-22, 11-13) won 5-4 on Saturday.
Baseball
Elon rallied from behind in all three games of a CAA sweep of North Carolina A&T at Latham Park.
Elon notched three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning for an 8-7 victory Sunday. Alex Duffey’s two-run single tied the game and Will Vergantino’s line drive to left field resulted in a game-winning sacrifice fly. Duffey earlier drilled a three-run home run.
Nolan Straniero threw Elon’s first nine-inning complete game since 2021 in Saturday’s 2-1, rain-interrupted victory. He tossed a four-hitter with seven strikeouts. Jake Hajdu’s eighth-inning double broke a 1-1 tie.
The Phoenix notched six eighth-inning runs in Friday night’s 14-8 series opener. Ryan Sprock and Vergantino homered.
Tuesday night’s 4-2 non-conference to visiting East Carolina snapped Elon’s four-game winning streak. Four Pirates pitchers held the Phoenix to four hits. East Carolina (26-19) snapped a 2-2 tie in the fifth and added a run in the seventh, delighting a large turnout of fans.
Elon (19-25, 9-9) plays Friday through Sunday at Hofstra.
Women’s lacrosse
Elon faces CAA Tournament host and No. 1 seed Stony Brook on Thursday in the semifinals. The Phoenix (9-7, 5-3) finished in fourth place after Saturday’s 16-7 loss to second-place Drexel in Philadelphia.
