Results
 
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's tennis team punched its ticket to the championship match of the 2023 Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament with a semifinal round shutout of West Chester University Saturday at the Burt Reese Tennis Center on the campus of Bloomsburg University.
 
SRU's 4-0 win against the Golden Rams sets up an all Western Division championship match Sunday as No. 41 Indiana University (Pa.) defeated Millersville University in Saturday's other semifinal.
 
Slippery Rock's dominant doubles lineup continued its great run in 2023 as first flight entries Teddi Isherwood and Adriana Gonzalez Sanchez defeated Davica Massaro and Ana Ochoa, 6-2, in the first result of the day.
 
Gabriela del Val del Toro and Nuria Martin Lopez then followed their teammate's lead by securing the first point of the afternoon with a 6-3 win from the second flight over Gabriella Lerario dos Santos and Elaina Lee.
 
Isherwood and Gonzalez Sanchez have now won six of their last eight matches while Martin Lopez and del Val del Toro improve to 21-10 on the season.
 
All PSAC Tournament matches are played under a "Clinch-Clinch" format and as such the No. 3 doubles contest pitting SRU's Dari Sakhanova and Tina Slovak against West Chester's Alyssa Skulsky and Tori Alexander was halted after The Rock's second-flight win.
 
Slippery Rock's first singles point of the match came from the first flight as Lee retired from the contest against Gonzalez Sanchez, who was winning 4-0 at the time of the stoppage.
 
Isherwood, who has now won three straight singles contests, inched SRU closer to the win with a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Skulsky out of the sixth flight.
 
del Val del Toro would go on to officially send Slippery Rock to the championship match by way of a 6-0, 6-3 victory from the second flight over Massaro. del Val del Toro, is 27-7 in singles matches this season.
 
While unfinished due to the aforementioned "Clinch-Clinch" tournament format, Sakhanova, Martin Lopez and Georgie Lancaster all won their opening sets from the third, fourth and fifth flights as well.
 
The Rock and Crimson Hawks will be meeting in the PSAC Tournament championship match for a second consecutive year. SRU brings a 15-7 record into Sunday's contest while IUP, the No. 41 ranked team in the nation, is 12-9 but have won 11 of its last 12 matches.
 
Indiana recorded a close 4-3 victory over Slippery Rock in the regular season. The Rock took the doubles point with wins from the first and third flights before IUP rallied for the win in singles competition following four three-set victories in the top four flights. The bottom part of the Crimson Hawks' lineup forfeited their bouts for SRU's second and third points.
 
Sunday's championship match, which is scheduled for another 10 a.m. start at the Burt Reese Tennis Center, will more than likely be the first of two postseason contests between what are two of the elite teams in the Atlantic Region.
 
Indiana and Slippery Rock were ranked second and third, respectively, In the most recent set of regional rankings released Wednesday by the NCAA DII Tennis Committee thus making an eventual NCAA Tournament re-match highly likely.
 
A victory over the Crimson Hawks would mark the fourth PSAC championship in program history for Slippery Rock, which also won the conference in 2003, 1981 and 1980.




To stay up to date with all that happens at The Rock, follow our official Athletic Communication accounts on Twitter (@Rock_Athletics), Facebook (RockAthletics) and Instagram (RockAthletics).