After a quarterfinal win over Rutgers and a pair of losses to Notre Dame and Louisville, the women's tennis team lived up to its seed over the weekend, coming away from the Big East tournament with a fourth-place finish.
With its first-round bye in the Big East, Marquette took advantage of the extra rest to overpower No. 12-seeded Rutgers 4-0 Friday afternoon. Sophomore Lauren Little and junior Shannon Brown opened the match with an 8-3 win at No. 1 doubles, and junior Maria Calbeto and freshman Kylie Moore secured the doubles point with an 8-5 win at No. 2.
Brown, who had her 13-match singles winning streak snapped in an Apr. 15 loss to Notre Dame, returned to form with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Rutgers' Christine Tran at No. 6 singles. Calbeto and sophomore Robin Metzler recorded wins at No. 4 and No. 5 singles respectively to send the Golden Eagles to the semifinals.
For the second time in a week, however, the Irish were more than Marquette could handle, rolling to a 4-0 win Saturday and cutting short any hopes of a Golden Eagles championship appearance.
Twin doubles duo Christian and Catrina Thompson dismantled Calbeto and Moore 8-1 in the No. 1 slot, and Marquette did not take a singles set. The Irish clinched the match on Colleen Rielley's 6-0, 6-4 win over Calbeto at No. 3 singles.
Marquette played No. 3-seeded Louisville for third place Sunday but couldn't capitalize on a fast start by Brown and Little at No. 1 doubles. The pair defeated Louisville's Lauren Imre and Robyn White 8-4, but Marquette dropped the No. 2 and No. 3 matches to lose the point.
Losses by Little at No. 1 singles and Brown at No. 6 singles gave Louisville a 3-0 lead. Calbeto beat White 6-3, 6-3 at No. 4 singles to stave off the sweep, but Metzler fell 6-3, 7-5 at No. 5 after her bid to force a tiebreaker came up short.
Head coach Jody Bronson said the Louisville match was closer than the final score indicated.
"I just think that these guys are starting to realize that they're a lot better than the way they started the season," she said, referring to her team's 1-8 start.
Bronson said this season was a "dramatic improvement" over last year.
Marquette finished 12-16 on the year, its first double-digit win season since 2000. In 2006, the Golden Eagles finished 11th in the Big East.
Bronson said the team showed resilience in meeting its preseason goal of earning a tournament bye.
"We could have gotten down (after struggling early in the year), but these guys really rebounded," she said. "I think it really energizes us for next year."
While Louisville and Marquette went out of the tournament the same way they went into it – the third- and fourth-best teams in the conference – No. 2-seeded South Florida shook things up with winning an upset over top-seeded Notre Dame in Sunday's title game.
The Irish, ranked No. 2 in the nation, entered the tournament as the heavy favorite, boasting a 38-2 all-time record against the current members of the Big East and riding a 74-match winning streak against unranked opponents that stretched backed to 1994. Notre Dame had won two straight conference titles.
A third looked likely after the Irish took a 3-1 lead, but South Florida stormed back to tie the match and took the championship on Iciri Rai's 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win at No. 6 singles over Katie Potts. Three singles points went to three sets, with the Bulls winning each. The win was South Florida's first Big East title in any sport.