LANCASTER, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's tennis team set a program record with three All-Centennial Conference honorees, as sophomore Aileen Bevard was named second team singles and senior BreAnna Bashaw and sophomore Ariel Danziger were second team doubles selections.
All three players established new school benchmarks during a regular season that saw Ursinus finish 11-7 overall and 4-6 in conference play. The Bears, who remained in the ITA Atlantic South regional rankings almost all year, tripled their all-time all-conference nominees, their star trio joining sophomore Ashley Nguyen – an honorable mention choice last season – as the only All-CC players in program history. After going 20 years without an all-conference player, Ursinus has four in the last two seasons.
Bevard was dominant at number three singles, compiling a record of 17-3 to break the record for singles victories in a season. She finished 8-2 in CC matches, losing only against Swarthmore and Washington College. All but two of her wins came in straight sets, and Bevard never dropped more than seven combined games in any of those matches. Bevard, who went 10-8 in dual matches at number one doubles with Nguyen, notched singles victories against both Haverford and Johns Hopkins, helping the Bears knock off the Fords for the first time since 1983 and spurring Ursinus to a near-upset of the ten-time defending league champion Blue Jays.
Bashaw made plenty of history in a sparkling senior season, becoming the first player in program history to reach 100 career wins with two triumphs in the season finale at McDaniel. The senior co-captain teamed with Danziger for a record-setting run at second doubles, tying junior Christine Palazzolo and senior Stephanie-Jane Seabra with 17 victories, a new school benchmark. Bashaw and Danziger, the first players in team history to earn an all-conference doubles laurel, were 8-2 in CC matches and closed the season on a nine-match winning streak that included triumphs over duos from conference playoff teams in Haverford, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore, and Franklin & Marshall.
Bashaw was also named to the All-Sportsmanship Team; she and Bevard stood out in the classroom as well, two of 11 student-athletes who earned both all-conference and CC Academic Honor Roll recognition. Nguyen and junior Robin Alsher joined them on the Spring Academic Honor Roll.