HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – CHAMPIONS! UC Women's Tennis claimed their first ever Mountain East Conference Championship, defeating West Virginia State University 5-4 at the Brian David Fox Tennis Center on Sunday afternoon.
 
It marks the first time UC has defeated the Yellow Jackets since the formation of the Mountain East Conference more than three years ago.  West Virginia State had won 51 consecutive conference matches before Sunday's MEC Tournament Championship Final loss to the Golden Eagles.
 
Charleston earned an early lead after claiming a pair of doubles court wins before moving to the six singles matches in Sunday's final.  The Yellow Jackets evened the match at 2-2 with Nina Dillwald's win at #4 singles but the Golden Eagles took the next two completed singles matches as Toni Katipa and Jackie Bakos each won in straight sets at #3 and #6 singles. 
 
UC needed just one victory on the final three courts to secure the tournament title, but the reigning champions wouldn't go away that easy tying the match at 4-4 with wins by Kayla McKnight and Kierstin Hensley on the #5 and #2 singles courts.  That left one match to decide the tournament champion, the #1 singles court between UC's freshman Kristine Gegeshidze and WVSU's Mountain East Conference Player of the Year Laura Isbey.
 
Isbey claimed the first set in a tiebreaker, but Gegeshidze rallied from a set down and avenged a regular season loss to Isbey by taking the second set 7-5 and securing UC's MEC title by winning the third 6-3.
 
DOUBLES
#1 Slusarciuc/Katipa (UC) def. Yevstakhevych/Isbey (WVSU) 8-3
#2 Dillwald/Hensley (WVSU) def. Gegeshidze/Edwards (UC) 8-3
#3 Bakos/Uyttenhove (UC) def. McKnight/Goff (WVSU) 8-4
 
SINGLES
#1 Kristine Gegeshidze (UC) def. Laura Isbey (WVSU) 6-7, 7-5, 6-3
#2 Kierstin Hensley (WVSU) def. Elise Edwards (UC) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
#3 Toni Katipa (UC) def. Marta Yevstakhevych (WVSU) 6-3, 5-1 (retired)
#4 Nina Dillwald (WVSU) def. Silvana Slusarciuc (UC) 6-1, 6-0
#5 Kayla McKnight (WVSU) def. Alize Uyttenhove (UC) 6-4, 6-1
#6 Jackie Bakos (UC) def. Lindsay Goff (WVSU) 6-4, 6-1