The Bloodhounds of John Jay won the first City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) title in program history over the weekend, beating Brooklyn College 5-4 in the championship match.
“It’s amazing to win a championship,” head coach Juan Andrade told JohnJayAthletics.com. “Going into the tournament, we were trying to figure out how much work we would have to do once the draw got set up. Together, with the girls, we thought it was possible. We came in as the No. 4 seed, but there was a tie for second. It just meant we had a couple more matches to win. The girls put in their work, and by the end of the season, they took it to another level against their competition.”
Brooklyn jumped out to the 3-1 lead early on against John Jay, but the Bloodhounds responded. Rageene Berry won her match at second singles and Gabrielle Schuck lost just one game en route to winning the fourth singles match to knot things at 3-all.
Gabriella de Armas won her match at third singles for John Jay, but Brooklyn’s Ievgenii Kostenko won first singles to once again tie the overall match.
That meant the championship would be determined at third singles. John Jay’s Gabriella de Armas rallied back from 0-2 down in the third set to beat Georgeen Belorse 6-7, 7-5, 6-4 to clinch the title for John Jay.
De Armas was named the Most Outstanding Player for the CUNYAC tournament.
