The North Florida Ospreys Women’s Tennis team are the ASUN Conference Champions. That sentence may sound familiar as this is their fifth straight year winning it. They pushed through a hard-fought battle against the FGCU Eagles for a historic win.

UNF got out to an early 3-0 lead in the match, first earning the point from a win in doubles by the pair of Junior Constanza Gorches and Senior Rafaela Gomez.

Then, Junior Lucia Montaño and Sophomore Valentina Mariotto won their matches as well to send the Ospreys up big.  The match was far from over however, with the Eagles winning two singles matches to pull within one.

Gorches was up 5-1 in the second set of her match against Senior Patricia Villar and looking for the closeout when everything seemed to collapse.  Villar went on to win 12 of the next 15 points in the match and later won the third set in commanding fashion, 6-2, and tied it up.

Gomez was left to try and close the deal for the Ospreys and secure yet another championship. The Senior  faced Junior Maja Ornberg with the title on the line and the match delivered.

The first two sets were split and Gomez delivered in the third and final, 6-3, prolonging her final season with a rousing conference championship performance.  For her efforts, Gomez earned the ASUN Tournament Most Valuable Player award.

UNF finished the season with a record of 17-7 and earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championship, which begins on May 16.  

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