Results

Flushing, NY --- On Saturday evening at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY, the #2 seeded Brooklyn College Bulldogs came up just short in the final of the 2013 City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC)/Hospital For Special Surgery (HSS) Women's Tennis Championships, falling 5-4 against the #1 seeded College of Staten Island Dolphins.

The win gives the Dolphins (16-2) the conference championship, as well as the CUNYAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament in May. This is CSI's first championship since 1999.

For the Bulldogs (12-3), who were in search of their first championship in school history, this was their second runner up finish in three years. BC lost to Hunter College in the 2011 final, 5-1.

The match began with doubles play, as the top seeded Dolphins struck first cruising to an 8-0 win at #3 doubles, led by the duo of Madiha Mulla and Nozima Toshpulatova. BC would take the top two doubles flights, as the tandems of Yuliya Orkis and Suraya Maenhout and Ekaterina Mospanova and Maria Sanz won by identical scores of 8-6 at #2 doubles and #1 doubles, respectively.

As the match headed into singles action with Brooklyn holding on to a slim 2-1 advantage, Orkis, the reigning three-time CUNYAC Player of the Year, continued her remarkable play, breezing to a 6-0, 6-0 win at #1 singles giving the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead.

From there, the Dolphins rattled off three straight wins taking #6, #5 and #3 singles, respectively, to go ahead 4-3. Toshpulatova (6-0, 6-0), Mulla (6-1, 5-0 retired) and Sabrina Bragerton-Nasert (6-3, 6-2) took home the wins for CSI.

Brooklyn would tie the match at 4-4, as Mospanova continued her strong play in the championships, earning a 6-1, 6-0 win at #2 singles.

The match would come down to #4 singles, as Brooklyn's Sanz and Staten Island's Jean Baak battled through a grueling three-set marathon match. Baak took the first set, 6-4; however, Sanz, a three-time CUNYAC Second Team All-Star and the 2013 Sportsmanship Award winner, showed her grit and determination by taking a 6-3 win in the second set to force the decisive third and final set. In the end, Baak would hold off Sanz by taking a 7-5 win to give the Dolphins the conference crown.

Brooklyn will continue its 2013-2014 season in the spring, as the Bulldogs will host the College of Saint Elizabeth on Saturday, March 22, 2014 at the Roosevelt Courts on the BC campus.