A young Holy Cross women’s tennis team captured the program’s third consecutive Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) title this season.
Boasting a roster with just two juniors and seven underclassmen, the Saints compiled an 8-5 record in the regular season. Holy Cross defeated St. Francis on April 23 and Olivet Nazarene on April 25 to clinch the CCAC tournament title.
"This year was like a building year,” head coach Eric Mahone said. “We had all these new girls, young girls, playing higher than they were before.”
Four of Holy Cross’ six starters were not in starter roles last season. To boot, the Saints faced a difficult schedule that saw them line up twice against defending NCAA Division 3 national champion University of Chicago and a handful of times against NCAA Division 1 opponents during the fall season.
“We put them through a gauntlet of a schedule,” Mahone said.
That difficult schedule was just a small part of building a culture of success this season. Mahone says that effort was spearheaded by junior captain Victoria Savvidou and assistant coach Helga Lopez.
“We were so intentional about building an identity and a culture,” Mahone said. “The biggest factor for success this season [was] the tandem between our junior captain this year, which is Victoria, and my assistant coach Helga Lopez, those two just creating the culture of a really tight girls team this year.”
Among her many leadership efforts, Savvidou was also named ITA East Region Most Improved Player this year. The ITA also named sophomore Jamison Geoffery East Region Player to Watch, and freshman Sophia Rocha as East Region Freshman of the Year.
The Saints’ doubles teams have especially found success this season, with the tandem of Rocha and sophomore Nicole Martinez ranked ninth nationally and Savvidou’s partnership with fellow junior Leah Gonzales-Edwards ranked tenth.
“This year’s already been special, arguably one of the best year’s [we’ve] ever had, but we haven’t hit our ceiling. Not even close,” Mahone said.
