Singles Championship
 
SCAD senior Theresa Schmaus faced Tetiana Kovalska, the defending regional champion from St. Thomas in the title match of the 2013 USTA-ITA Regionals.  The 2012 Sun Conference Player of the Year, Schmaus had bested ERAU freshman Anna Gotz in her semifinal contest to advance to Sunday's championship match.
 
Schmaus was down a set when Kovalska opened in strong fashion by winning 6-4.  But Schmaus rallied and survived the first set loss by winning the second set 6-3.  It came down to a third set to decide the singles championship title.  And Schmaus brought it home. 

A game break for Schmaus allowed her to serve for the title.  And she came through.  Theresa Schmaus wins the 2013 ITA Singles Championship with a 6-4 victory in the third and deciding set.  It doesn't get any better than that.  Congratulations to Theresa Schmaus!! 

With Schmaus taking the singles championship title it was now time for the doubles championship final.
 
Doubles Championship

The doubles bracket featured a pair of upsets as both of the top two seeds bowed out in the semifinal round.  Quarterfinal action saw top-seeded Huang and Kristina Marova notch an 8-0 over Northwood's Melanie Snowberger and Julia Cusumanno and SCAD's Maria Barragan and Daniela Arcila top Northwood's Justyna Wojcik and Ivan Vlakic 8-2.
 
The other half of the bracket saw 2012 national champions Schmaus and Maja Plavsic register an 8-0 shutout against Northwood's Livia Toth and Maria Souki, while third-seeded Kovalska and Gabriella Bongiovanni topped ERAU's Paula Couder and Anna Gotz 8-3.
 
In the first semifinal, Huang and Marova bounced back from a 6-1 deficit to tie Barragan and Arcila 7-7, but the SCAD duo managed to hold and break serve to top the Embry-Riddle pair 9-7. In the other semifinal match SCAD's Schmaus and Plavsic led the St. Thomas team early on, but Kovalska and Bongiovanni battled back to take the lead and eventually upended the number two seeded SCAD tandem 9-7 to advance to the final. It was a disappointing loss for the 2012 national doubles champions.
 
It would have been a fairy tale ending to have two SCAD doubles teams in the championship final, but when Schmaus and Plavsic took an exit it was all up to Barragan and Arcila to carry the SCAD hope for a "double" championship (Schmaus in singles, and now the unseeded Barragan and Arcila in doubles).
 
As with the Schmaus singles match the first set did not go well for the SCAD tandem.  They found themselves down a set, having lost 2-6.  But like Schmaus in her singles match, Barragan and Arcila rallied and reversed the score by winning the second set 6-2 to even the match.  It would come down to a tiebreak set.  It could not get more exciting.  Barragan and Arcila made it a SCAD Bees day by sustaining the momentum into the tiebreak.  They prevailed and came away with a 10-7 victory.
 
SCAD had won the day by taking the Women's Singles  AND  Doubles USTA-ITA Regional Championship.  I was wrong.  It does get better than that..  Congratulations to Barragan and Arcila for beating the odds and bringing it home.  Way to go Bees!!