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NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – The top-seeded Christopher Newport women's tennis team defended its conference crown on Sunday afternoon at the James River Country Club and captured the program's second straight Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Championship. The Captains defeated #2-seed UC Santa Cruz (13-7) by a final score of 4-1 to hoist the 2025 C2C Women's Tennis Championship Trophy.
 
It marks the fourth conference championship for CNU Women's Tennis after Pat Accettola led the 1993 version of the program to the Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title and Jenny Nuttycombe secured the first tournament title for the Captains in 2006 as members of the USA South Athletic Conference. Last season, head coach David Weiner guided CNU to the first ever C2C Championship, becoming only the second program to ever win the conference tournament crown since its inception in 2006.
 
Playing against the Banana Slugs indoors due to rainfall, the Captains took a 1-0 lead after doubles. The doubles point came courtesy of back-to-back wins by the Captains at No. 2 and No. 3. Kendal Chang and Samantha Robertson won at No. 2 against Chloe Wu and Melody Ghaffari, 6-3, and moments later, Lindsey Bergelin and Erin Gross finished off the win at No. 3, 6-4. The match at No. 1 was deadlocked at four games apiece when the doubles point was clinched, sending the Captains into a spirited celebration.
 
In singles play, the Captains doubled the team lead with a win at No. 3 where rookie Kendal Chang captured a 6-2, 6-2 win against Melody Ghaffari. Chang clinched her match with a bullet down the line and Ghaffari was unable to return the blazing forehand.
 
Kylie Schaefer showed an impressive resilience at No. 2 singles where it looked like the Banana Slugs might take a pivotal point. After dropping the first set, 6-2, the Captains' sophomore trailed 6-5 in the second set but held serve in the 12^th game to force a tiebreak. In the breaker, Schaefer took a 6-2 lead but her opponent, Meghana Damojipurapu, fought all the way back to knot it up at 6-6. Schaefer then won the next two points, finally clinching the second set on her fifth set point, sending the match into a third set.
 
UC Santa Cruz got on the board with a win at No. 4 where Natalie Sprenger outlasted Eva Taylor, 6-4, 6-3, to trim the lead to one, 2-1. All four courts were filled with the remaining singles matches, including a tremendous battle at No. 1 between two of the top players in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference. Weis took on Sara Beckman for the Banana Slugs and the two were locked in a back-and-forth affair for the duration of the match.
 
Beckman earned a first set victory, 6-2, before Weis added a convincing response in the second for a 6-3 win. The decisive third set featured highlight-reel shots from both players, including a waist-high volley on a line drive from Weis that resulted in a sizzling forehand winner into the corner. The two traded breaks as Weis surged ahead 4-2 but Beckman rallied to pull back even with an ace to hold serve and make it 4-4. Weis held serve and had a chance to clinch the win at No. 1 with one more game victory. She took a 15-love lead with a beautiful trickler off the middle of the net and Beckman went into the net to make it 30-love. Weis then set herself up for a match-clinching point with a whistling forehand moments later. A long return from Beckman sent the CNU senior and the Captains into a hard-earned celebration.
 
With the match in the balance, Schaefer's comeback would be the championship-winning bout at No. 2. After nearly falling in straight sets, the sophomore carried the momentum from her second-set tiebreaker and jumped out to a 3-1 lead. She added two of the next three games to put the title match on the brink, leading 5-2. Schaefer put an emphatic punctuation mark on her individual match, and the team's championship clinching point, when a high-arcing return allowed her to slam the winner into the paint and trigger the team's celebration.
 
The remaining matches were left unfinished but Samantha Robertson earned a first-set win, 7-5, against Chloe Wu at No. 5 and Lindsey Bergelin added a 6-0 win over Sweden Van Houten at No. 6 when the match was clinched.

After the match, Raine Weis was named the C2C Tournament MVP for the second straight year and was joined on the All-Tournament Team by Kylie Schaefer and Kendal Chang. Weis joins Lindsay Pantele as the only two-time Conference Tournament MVP in program history. With her singles win, Weis picked up her 55th career win to move into the top-five all-time in career singles wins, tying Marion Gloor (2010-13) and Jodi Noland (2011-14). 
 
With the win, Christopher Newport improves to 13-7 overall this season and matches the most wins in a season under coach Weiner.
 
The Captains, who advanced to the NCAA Division III Women's Tennis Championship with an at-large berth in 2024, will have to await the decision of the championship committee to see if they have done enough to warrant selection into this year's postseason event. The selection show will be streamed live at NCAA.com on Monday, May 5 at Noon.