BEL AIR, Md.—The Harford women's tennis team claimed the overall Region XX championship title for the second straight year and they did it in historic fashion, winning all nine singles and doubles bouts on Friday and Saturday at Emmorton Recreation and Tennis Center. The Fighting Owls amassed a total of 18 points, more than triple the score of runner-up Hagerstown (5), while Cecil (3) and Montgomery College-Rockville (1) rounded out the four-team field.
Sophomores Kate Tiburzi (Fallston, Md./Fallston) and Courtney Brewer (Street, Md./North Harford) led the Owls on the weekend as they claimed their third and fourth Region XX titles over two years. Tiburzi, who notched the No. 5 singles title and was part of the No. 3 doubles team which was victorious during her freshman year, moved up in the lineup and took home the No. 2 singles and No. 1 doubles crowns this past weekend. Brewer won at No. 3 singles and No. 2 doubles for the second straight year.
Tiburzi advanced to the No. 2 singles final by virtue of a 6-1, 6-2 semifinal win over Cecil's Emily Letizia before dispatching Hagerstown's Chris Kantner, 6-2, 6-3 for her second career individual title. The sophomore also teamed with freshman Ashley Sherinsky (Fallston, Md./Fallston) to win the No. 1 doubles crown, downing Cecil's Kelly Cossaboon and Kayla Layton, 6-2, 6-0 in the semis and defeating Hagerstown's Jessie Kissner and Brittany Smetzer, 6-2, 6-1 in the final.
Brewer faced Smetzer on the individual stage, notching an easy, 6-0, 6-1 semifinal win before Layton pushed the final to a 6-3, 6-4 decision in Brewer's favor. In the No. 2 doubles draw Brewer teamed with freshman Katie Sampayo (Fallston, Md./Fallston) and defeated Rockville's Kseniya Verynhorne and Alienia Nakamura, 6-1, 6-1 before downing Hagerstown's Kantner and Jill Watson, 6-2, 6-2 in the final.
Sophomore Megan Heagy (Fallston, Md./Fallston/Towson) and freshman Julie Vuncannon (Aberdeen, Md./Aberdeen) rounded out the doubles winners after defeating Hagerstown's Katie Mann and Wendy Lucas, 6-0-6-3 to claim the No. 3 doubles crown.
Sherinsky, Sampayo and Heagy were all double-winners along with Tiburzi and Brewer as they claimed victories in their respective No. 1, No. 5 and No. 4 singles draws. Sherinsky downed Cossaboon, 6-1, 6-0 in the semis before earning a 1-6, 6-0, 6-1 win over Rockville's Victorine Ngang in the No. 1 slot. Sampayo also saw her finals match against Cecil's Cara Wilson go to three sets, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 after defeating Lucas, 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals of No. 5 singles, while Heagy beat Watson, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) in the semis and Cecil's Rachel Jackson, 6-4, 6-4 in the finals of No. 4 singles.
Sophomore Kelsey Strine (Abingdon, Md./Edgewood), the 2008 No. 4 singles champion, wrapped up the Harford lineup with a No.6 singles win by blanking Mann, 6-0, 6-0.
With the win, the Fighting Owls earn an automatic berth in the NJCAA Division-I National Championship from May 1-6, 2010, at the Randolph Tennis Center in Tucson, Ariz., where they will look to improve on their 26th-place showing from a year ago.
