BEVERLY, Mass. - Endicott had their backs against the wall against Roger Williams in the CCC Semifinals on Wednesday but the Gulls completed a dramatic come-from-behind victory on their home courts, winning 5-4 to advance to their second straight conference championship match.
Endicott will take on top-seeded Nichols on Saturday, October 20th at 1:00 pm in Dudley, Massachusetts, market the second consecutive meeting between the two teams in the CCC Championship. Last year, Endicott upset Nichols 5-3 to capture their second conference title in program history. In 2012, the Gulls lost to the Bison 5-4 during the regular season back on October 3rd at home.
In Wednesday's semifinal match against Roger Williams, the Hawks took a 2-1 lead after doubles and continued on to a 4-1 lead after victories at the #5 and #6 singles matches. The Gulls, needing wins at the remainign four singles flights, completed their comeback on the #4 singles court as sophomore Amy Heacox (Marion, Mass.) won sets two and three over her Roger Williams opponent to earn the deciding fifth point in the match.
The Hawks won two out of three doubles matches as the duos of junior Hillary Dutton (Cheshire, Conn.) and freshman Adriana Maconochie (Easton, Mass.) as well as sophomore Alexandra Brown (Kennett, Mo.) and freshman Lauren Schmidt (South Windsor, Conn.) put Endicott in a hole with wins at #2 and #3 doubles. The number two doubles team won 8-5 while the number three doubles team handed their Endicott opposition their first loss of the season with an 8-5 triumph.
The Gulls took the top doubles position thanks to a strong 8-2 win by sophomores Chrissy Martel (Westbrook, Conn.) and Natalie Egbert (Gorham, Maine). The duo improved to 10-4 on the season and avenged a September 19th, regular season loss to their same Roger Williams opponents.
In singles play, the Hawks quickly went ahead 4-1 in the match after Brown won 6-0, 6-1 at #5 singles and Maconochie won 6-3, 7-6 (7-0).
Egbert started Endicott's comeback at the #3 position with a 6-2, 6-2 victory, followed also by straight set victories at #2 and #1 singles by Martel and junior Emilie Cloutier (Lewiston, Maine). With the match tied 4-4, the #4 singles match up between Heacox and Dutton would decide the second finalist in the CCC Championship on Saturday.
Dutton took set one 6-3, but the two battled in set two with Heacox coming out on top 7-5. In the third set tiebreaker, the two players exchanged games and were tied 4-4 before Heacox rallied to win the final two games to take the third set 6-4 and the match. Heacox' win kept her unbeaten in singles play this fall at 14-0.
Endicott improved to 13-2 overall on the season while Roger Williams dropped to 9-4.
