CLARKS SUMMITT, Pa. – The North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) wrapped up its two-day Women’s Tennis West Division* championships with individual tournament play Sunday, which consisted of the top-four seeded student-athletes for first through sixth singles and first through third doubles.

Each flight saw the No. 1 seed take on the No. 4 seed and the No. 2 seed take on the No. 3 seed. The first-round winners advanced to the championship round, which produced six singles position champions and three doubles position champions, with those student-athletes also making up the All-Conference First Team.  The runners-up from those flights made up the All-Conference Second Team, while the All-Conference Third Team consisted of the winners of each flight from the consolation bracket.  All three All-Conference teams can be viewed below.

The NEAC also announced its individual awards at the conclusion of the tournament, which was held at the Birchwood Tennis Club in Clarks Summit, Pa.  Penn State Harrisburg sophomore Gabrielle LeGendre (East Stroudsburg, Pa.), last year’s Rookie of the Year, made the jump to Player of the Year after defeating Penn State Berks sophomore Crystal Hitz (Lebanon, Pa.) in a tremendous back-and-fourth first singles championship match 6-3,1-6, 6-4.  LeGendre also defeated Penn State Abington senior Jenny Abraham (Philadelphia. Pa.) in straight sets (6-1, 6-4) in the opening round of first singles play.  For the season, LeGendre was 9-5 overall, including 4-1 against NEAC West competition.

Wells College sophomore Ayumi Takeuchi (Eniwa, Hokkaido, Japan) was selected by the conference coaches as the NEAC West Rookie of the Year following an undefeated record in singles play.  In her first year with the Express, Takeuchi went a perfect 10-0 at No. 3 singles to become the first student-athlete in program history to go undefeated out of any flight of singles play.  She also swept both of her No. 3 singles matches during individual tournament play Sunday en route to an All-Conference First Team selection.

Penn State Berks head coach Scott Yarnell was chosen by his peers as the Coach of the Year for the second straight season and sixth time in his career.  Yarnell led the Nittany Lions to their second straight divisional championship with back-to-back victories on Saturday after entering the tournament as the top seed (recap here), which they earned after capturing the regular season divisional title with a perfect 7-0 conference record while being 12-3 overall. 

To view all of the results from the divisional championship, click here.

The All-Conference Team selections are as follows:

All-Conference Team Selections

***********************************************************************************************************The North Eastern Athletic Conference has thirteen NCAA Division III member institutions which include: Cazenovia College, College of St. Elizabeth, Gallaudet University, Keuka College, Lancaster Bible College, Pennsylvania State University - Abington, Pennsylvania State University - Berks, Pennsylvania State University -Harrisburg, SUNY Cobleskill, SUNY Institute of Technology, SUNY Morrisville State College, Wells College, and Wilson College.  Associate members are: Hilbert College (M Lacrosse), Medaille College (M&W Lacrosse) and Rutgers University - Camden (M Golf & M Tennis). 

*Beginning with the 2010 season, the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) has partnered with the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) in the sport of men’s and women’s tennis.  The NEAC will compete as associate members of the NAC in men’s tennis, while the NAC will compete as associate members of the NEAC in women’s tennis.  Members from each conference will be divided into an East and West Division for each sport, with each division holding a championship and the two divisional champions then facing off to determine the conference champion. The conference winner for each sport will earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships. 

A complete breakdown of the NEAC/NAC tennis partnership is as follows:

Men's Tennis: NEAC members Cazenovia, Keuka, Lancaster Bible, Penn State Abington, Penn State Berks, Penn State Harrisburg and Rutgers-Camden will play as associate members of the NAC in a West Division.  The East Division will consist of NAC members Castleton, Colby-Sawyer, Green Mountain, Johnson State, Lyndon State, MCLA and Thomas.

Women's Tennis: NAC members Castleton, Colby-Sawyer, Johnson State, Lyndon State, MCLA and Thomas will play in the NEAC as associate members in the East Division.  The West Division will consist of NEAC members Cazenovia, College of St. Elizabeth, Keuka, Lancaster Bible, Penn State Abington, Penn State Berks, Penn State Harrisburg and Wells.