For the second year in a row, the Holy Cross women’s tennis team became the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference champions. After going undefeated in conference play during the season for the first time and going 10-2 overall, the team defeated Roosevelt 4-0 to bring the conference title back to South Bend. The duos of sophomore Kia Carvalho-Landell and freshman Nicole Martinez and senior Anna Beer and sophomore Victoria Savvidou brought home the doubles victories while freshman Maria Sanchez, senior Diane Maillotte and Martinez secured points for singles.
It really was a team victory, with so many different players getting big wins to sweep their opponent. The team also secured a spot in the NAIA Tournament in the middle of May in Alabama with the win.
Head coach Eric Mahone was very proud of the team when talking about all it has accomplished this year. Three of its top four starters are underclassmen, so the Saints are in a good position to continue their win streak into next season. However, they will be losing four seniors: Beer, Maillotte, Carvalho-Landell and Helga Lopez. Three of them are captains.
“In terms of the team dynamics, it's been great because I've just got amazing leaders and my three senior captains … It's like having three assistant coaches,” Mahone said.
It’s the dedication of these seniors who are really owed credit for getting the Saints to this point as they have been instrumental in raising the status of the program.
“When [the seniors] all made the decision to come play for us, we were really bad. We weren't even close to winning conference championships, and they took a chance on Holy Cross and so really, those four women built the program on their backs,” Mahone said.
Those seniors will leave the program in the hands of some very capable freshmen and sophomores. Savvidou is already playing in the No. 1 spot and Sanchez at No. 2 as a freshman for a team ranked top-25 in the country in its division. With so much talent on the team, the Saints should be in prime position to keep the winning streak going into next season.
“The gratitude I have towards [the seniors for] believing in us and believing in me and our program goes without saying because we wouldn't have the younger players we have if we didn't have them,” Mahone said.
For now, the Saints' season recently ended on Tuesday with a 4-3 loss to Dillard in the NAIA Women's Tennis National Championship First Round.
