Oct. 14, 2006

FAIRFIELD, CT (October 14, 2006) - The Sacred Heart women's tennis team opened the defense of their New England Championship Saturday afternoon and saw all three of their doubles teams advance along with senior Pam Pillo (Shelton, CT) advancing to the finals of her flight at the 2006 championships at Fairfield University. Play will continue Saturday afternoon with the finals of the singles flights and second round and finals play in doubles.

Pillo navigated her way through the Flight #1 singles bracket and will face Lara Maurer of Rhode Island in the title match. The senior from Shelton, Connecticut opened with a 6-4, 4-6, 11-9 win in her first match over Catherine Grarand-Butcher of the University of Montreal. Pillo picked up a 6-2, 6-3 win over Paulina Rys of Fairfield University in the second round to get through to Sunday's final. Pillo was seeded #2 in the flight with Maurer the #1 seed.

Sophomore Mandy Finkelstein (Portland, CT) was the only other Pioneer to advance out of the singles flights. Finkelstein took a 6-2, 6-1 decision over Amy Garrity of Holy Cross to take on Gabriela Davila of Fairfield. Finkelstein won the first set 6-3 but lost 6-3 and 10-5 in the next two. Finkelstein will face Manon Guez from Montreal in the third place match tomorrow.

In doubles play, all three SHU team's won their opening round matches. Pillo and sophomore Nicole Betz (Long Beach, NY) posted an 8-3 win over Megan Moran and Meredith Bacon of Holy Cross in the Flight #1 doubles draw. The duo will meet the team of Maurer and Val Chacon of URI in the semifinal round.

In the #2 doubles flight, Finkelstein and Julianne Kasinow (Wall, NJ) teamed to beat Genevieve Prairie-Caron and Sandra Bertay of Montreal 8-4. They will face Ivette Konopka and Amy Garrity of Holy Cross in the second round. Junior Jessica Schnell (Schenectady, NY) and freshman Ashley Amalfe (Clark, NJ) beat Guez and Delphine Walsh of Montreal, 8-3. They are going to face Michaela Cerrone and Davila of Fairfield in round two.

Kasinow, Betz and Amalfe will all play in 5th place singles matches tomorrow.

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