PAC Release
TRAFFORD, Pa. -- The Allegheny College women's tennis team earned a bevy of awards from the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) in recognition of the Gators' outstanding fall season.
On Friday, the PAC announced the winners of its yearly awards and All-PAC selections. For the second year in a row, an Allegheny student-athlete was named PAC Newcomer of the Year, as first-year standout
Chanel Brun (Aix-en-Provence, France/Fox Chapel (Pa.)) received this year's award. Head coach
Dave Hayden, who guided the Blue & Gold to their third consecutive conference championship, also repeated as the PAC Coach of the Year.
In addition to Brun and Hayden's year-end awards, eight different Gators collected a combined 12 All-PAC honors.
Gabrielle Bassette (Miami, Fla./Miami Country Day School) and
Claire Terefe (Dallas, Texas/Texas Online Preparatory School) were both named All-PAC First Team in singles and doubles. As a tandem, they had only one doubles loss and outscored their opponents 24-2 across their last four matches. Bassette, the PAC Championship Tournament MVP, went 9-3 in singles, including seven wins from No. 1 spot. Terefe was 12-1 in singles competition and 7-0 against PAC opponents while playing as high as No. 1 in the lineup.
Brun was included on the All-PAC First Team for singles and the All-PAC Second Team for doubles. She concluded the fall with 12 doubles wins, tying Bassette for the most on the team. Brun, who was utilized in the top four spots in the singles lineup, was undefeated in seven matches against conference opponents.
Adriana Navarro (Tegucigalpa, Honduras/DelCampo School) and
Evie Ellenberger (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) made up the other Allegheny duo that was voted to the All-PAC First Team. Together, the juniors were 5-2 with four conference wins, including No. 1 victories against Franciscan University and Westminster College. Navarro also earned a second-team honor for her singles play. She won 10 of her 11 matches, including shutout wins over Waynesburg University and Westminster.
Sophomore
Giada Palmieri (Berlin, Germany/Paulsen Gymnasium) was promoted to the All-PAC First Team as a singles competitor after being named to the second team last fall. As Allegheny's primary No. 2 player, she went 4-1 against conference opponents and earned a third-set tiebreak victory over Washington & Jefferson College's Claire Loomis in the season-opening Allegheny Invitational.
First-years
Jade Flores (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) and
Karlie Nicolae (Medina, Ohio/Archbishop Hoban) rounded out the Allegheny's second-team honorees. Flores finished 11-2 while playing second, third, and fourth singles. In her second collegiate match at the Allegheny Invitational, she beat Mollie Gray from Division I Mercyhurst University in a tiebreaker, 5-7, 6-0, 10-4. Nicolae overcame an early injury and became a key member of the doubles lineup, winning all five matches with 6-0 sweeps of Thiel College and Saint Vincent College.
Hayden received his third PAC Coach of the Year award as Allegheny's head women's tennis coach. Under his leadership, the Gators went 11-1 during the fall portion of the season, with the only loss coming to a Saint Francis group reclassifying from Division I with multiple scholarship athletes. Since rejoining the PAC, AC women's tennis has won four conference championships and boasts a 40-0 regular-season record against league opponents.
