Championship Round

The 2011 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) Tennis Championships were decided today as the Lady Panthers of Clark Atlanta University defeated the Lady Wildcats of Fort Valley State University to claim the women's title and the men's title was won by the Maroon Tigers of Morehouse College who defeated the Tigers of Stillman College.

Women's Championship

The Lady Panthers of Clark Atlanta University (CAU) claimed the women's title with a 5-2 win over the Lady Wildcats of Fort Valley State University (FVSU). The conference title was the first for CAU since the 2007 season.

The tone of the match was set in doubles play as the Lady Panthers took a 2-1 lead. CAU's Munashe Makuni and Ivory Conley took the number one doubles match with an 8-3 win over FVSU's Roberta Robinson and Chelsea Spear. The Lady Wildcats won the number two doubles as the team of Yonelle Aromin and Chade Scott defeated Keva Palmer and Kasey Dawson, 8-6. CAU rallied to take the final doubles match as Cydney Reid and Brioone Bachus beat Chantelle Chiles and Briana Pettiford, 8-4.

After the first two singles matches, the lead widened for CAU. Makuni defeated Aromin 6-0, 6-0 and Palmer beat Robinson by the same score to give the Lady Panthers a 4-1 edge. The Lady Wildcats drew closer in the third singles match when FVSU's Scott defeated Conley, 6-2, 6-2. The Lady Panthers claimed the 2011 crown when Brionne Bachus defeated Briana Pettiford, 6-2, 6-1.

With the win, the Lady Panthers receive an automatic bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Regional Tournament.

Men's Championship

In a battle between the conference number one and two teams, two-time defending SIAC Champion Morehouse College met the number one ranked Tigers of Stillman College.

In doubles play, the Morehouse took two of the three matches. The Maroon Tigers duo of Michael Cutrer and Jordan Bailey defeated the team of brothers from Stillma College, Jeffrey and Felipe Farias, 8-6.
Morehouse got its second doubles win when Michael Thomas and Noah Terry paired to defeat Ryan Lincoln and Anes Hrjnic, 8-1. The Tigers of Stillman rebounded in the final doubles match as Ivan Irazabal and David Torres defeated Tory Martin and Mario Ecung, 8-6.

Trailing 2-1 as singles play began, Stillman took a 3-2 lead when Torres bested DeWayne Dixon in straight sets, 6-2, 6-2 and Felipe Farias out-dueled Ecung, 7-5, 6-2. The match was pulled back to even at 3-3 when Morehouse's Michael Thomas defeated Hrjnic, 6-2, 6-4.

In the perhaps the most entertaining match of the championship, Morehouse inched ahead 4-3 after Martin battled Irazabal to a 7-5, 6-7 (9-7), 6-3 win. The Morehouse lead was short-lived as Jeffrey Farias defeated Cutrer, 6-4, 6-0 to tie the teams at four games each.

The championship would come down to the final singles match of the tournament between Lincoln for Stillman and Bailey for Morehouse. With Bailey's 6-0, 6-1 win, the Maroon Tigers maintained their dominance of SIAC Men's Tennis with their third consecutive conference title.