Shane EvansCabrini’s women’s tennis team walked away with five of the nine available gold metals at the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference championship, earning them a first place victory for the third straight year in a row. The championship was located at Allentown’s West End Racquet Club from Oct. 20-22.
Sophomore Dina DiTaranto and junior secondary education major Carolyn Wilson started off the weekend right by winning the doubles title. DiTaranto and Wilson had a 9-0 season together after being paired since Sept. 22. The two easily won the championship match, 8-1 against Misericordia’s Sherri Bell and Amy Jayne.
“I know people think tennis is boring. Who wants to hit a ball back and forth? But when you’re in the middle of an intense point, running up and down, reaching for the ball. But when you get that point, you’re like yes!” DiTaranto said.
DiTaranto earned player-of-the-year honors as well as back-to-back PAC rookie-of-the-year awards. She has also earned three gold metals during her two years here at Cabrini. Wilson won two gold medals at the PAC championship, making a total of five earned during her three years playing for Cabrini. She is also the only PAC champ in both singles and doubles. Wilson also won her third singles crown at the PAC championship.
“Winning two medals in one weekend was probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever experienced. Having two individual medals really proves to yourself, as an individual, how much you have improved as a player; it gives you a complete feeling of satisfaction,” Wilson said.
After all six women won their first round of singles, Cabrini then captured four of the six available single titles at the PAC Championship. This is the largest one-day medal haul in Cabrini’s history. Wilson, along with senior marketing major Caitlin Scott and freshman elementary education major Nicole Pentious were all the top seeds in their flights and all finished their seasons unbeaten against PAC opponents. This win was the fourth conference gold won for Scott.
Sarbaugh and Scott went 12-0 in PAC matches this season as a doubles team, and although were favored to win, disappointingly fell to Misericordia in the semi-finals. Senior elementary education major Jackie Creighton and Pontious also fell in the semi-finals to Gwynedd-Mercy. “Amy and I had an off-day. You play your heart out all season, go undefeated and then to lose in the semi-finals was a hard loss for the both of us. Friday just wasn’t our day I guess,” said Scott.
“Bringing home a championship for your school feels amazing, because you know that you were part of that milestone,” Scott said. “Each year, we go out knowing we have a championship to defend and know we have to play our hardest to defend out title,” Sarbaugh said.
As a senior, this was Scott and Creighton’s third championship win playing for Cabrini. “Winning the team championship felt amazing. No other team wanted it as much as we did. We are the first team in PAC history, as well as Cabrini tennis history, to have the opportunity to play at Nationals. It’s just so great.”
