St. John's and Marquette Both Capture Program's First #BEtennis Titles
St. John's 4, DePaul 2 | Marquette 4, DePaul 1
CAYCE, S.C. - For the first time in BIG EAST history, the St. John's women and Marquette men sit atop of the conference after the top-seeded Johnnies defeated No. 2 DePaul, 4-2, and the third-seeded Golden Eagles bested No. 1 DePaul, 4-1.
St. John's Olaya Inclan Solis earned the Women's Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament after going undefeated at the championship, while clinching all three Red Storm victories. Over the course of three matches, she was 3-0 at No. 2 singles and 2-0 at No. 2 doubles with Irina Preotescu. Marquette's junior Alvaro Verdu was named the Men's Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament after clinching the Golden Eagles 4-1 victory on Sunday and finishing a perfect 3-0 during singles play.
Kicking off doubles play this morning, Solis and Preotescu won the opening match of the day by a 6-2 score on the middle court before Zofia Stanisz and Jessica Livianu cemented the early 1-0 lead with a 6-4 win over Patricia Lancranjan and Keisha Clousing.
In singles action, the Blue Demons quickly evened the match when Marija Jovicic defeated Zofia Stanisz, 6-0, 6-1.
Moments later, St. John's jumped ahead 3-1 after Kajsa Stegrell picked up a straight set victory on court six, before Livianu topped Clousing, 6-1, 6-2.
Looking to make a comeback, DePaul's Aspasia Avgeri picked up a win at No. 3 singles.
In a second set battle at No. 2 singles, Solis bested Lancranjan, 6-3, 7-6 (5) to secure the championship.
For the third day in a row, the Golden Eagles, who were playing for the BIG EAST title for the fourth-straight year, rallied for a win after dropping the doubles point in all three of their matches this weekend.
Trailing 1-0, Marquette picked up a win at No. 6 singles when Brandon Shanklin topped Luuk Wassenaar, 6-2, 6-4.
At No. 2 singles, Luke Smrek pushed the Golden Eagles in front, with a straight set victory over DePaul's Alex Galoustian, before Greg Anderson secured the third point of the match on court four.
In a battle at the No. 1 position, Verdu outlasted Boris Spanjaard 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to capture the team's victory.
With their BIG EAST titles, Marquette and St. John's receive the conference's automatic qualifiers to the NCAA Men's and Women's Tennis Championship. The complete bracket for the women's tournament will be revealed at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 1, via a selection show on NCAA.com. The men's bracket reveal will follow at 5:30 p.m.