Women Knock Off Barry, Head To Finals

After a one-year absence, the Armstrong Atlantic State University women's tennis team is headed back to the NCAA DII Women's Tennis Championship match after closing out No. 2 Barry, 5-2, in the semifinals on Friday.

The Pirates needed just two singles wins after a 3-0 lead in doubles, and as fate would have it, Armstrong picked up exactly two first sets in singles. Barbora Krtickova picked up a 6-2, 6-0 win over Cristina Valladares at No. 1 singles, but all of the other matches were going Barry's way until Clara Perez won six straight games from 5-4 down in the first set to take a 7-5, 3-0 lead and eventually close out a 6-3 win in the second set to clinch the match.

Armstrong will now take on No. 1 and undefeated BYU-Hawaii in the national championship match in a matchup of the two women's tennis programs that have the most DII national championships in NCAA history. BYU-Hawaii has seven and Armstrong has six. The two teams met last in the 2010 title match with Armstrong winning, 5-1. Armstrong also faced the Seasiders in the last Spring Sports Festival, in Houston in 2008 as the Pirates won a semifinal matchup, 5-1.

Armstrong and BYU-Hawaii met in the postseason in eight straight seasons, from 2001-08, with the Pirates winning twice - in the 2005 National Championship match and the 2008 semifinals. The 2005 win ended a streak of 130 consecutive wins by BYU-Hawaii and the 2008 win ended a streak of 88 straight.

Next up is the men - Armstrong faces Lynn at 2:00 p.m. to join the women in the National Championship !