Williams Women's Tennis Wins 7th NCAA Title in Eight Years

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MASON, Ohio – In a clash of NCAA Division III women's tennis titans it was only fitting that it would take just under five hours to find a difference between the No. 1 ranked Ephs of Williams College and No. 2 ranked Eagles of Emory University.
 
Eph sophomore Linda Shin prevailed in three sets at number two singles to give Williams a 5-4 win over Emory and its seventh NCAA title in the last eight years under head coach Alison Swain '01.
Since 2001 when Williams won its first NCAA title Emory and Williams have combined to win 14 of the last 15 NCAA titles. Williams has won a Division III record nine titles, including a record six in a row, and in that time Emory won five. Only Washington & Lee in 2007 interrupted the run by the Eagles and the Ephs.
 
With the win on Wednesday, Alison Swain's Ephs completed the first undefeated two-semester season (25-0) in Williams' women's tennis history and extended the Ephs' overall win streak to 26.
 
Emory finished the season at 20-4 and both of the Eagles' Division III losses came at the hands of Williams and their other losses were to teams in Division I. The Ephs and Eagles played on March 28 on the campus of Washington & Lee University, and Williams won, 6-3.
 
The first match to deliver a result this afternoon came at three doubles, where the Eph tandem of Rebecca Curran and Maya Hart dropped the first game to Emory's Melissa Goodman and Rebecca Siegler. However, the Eph duo made short work of that 1-0 deficit by rattling off eight straight wins to post an 8-1 victory and give Williams a 1-0 lead.
 
Emory evened the match at one all with an 8-4 win at one doubles. The Eagles' Anna Fuhr and Michelle Satterfield fell behind the Eph freshman tandem of Mia Gancayco and Julia Cancio 1-0, but later took a 3-1 lead that the Ephs could not erase. Up 5-3 Emory took three of the last four games for the win.
 
And so it came down to two doubles to determine the team lead heading into singles play. The Eph pairing of Linda Shin and Juli Raventos trailed only briefly at 3-2, but did not trail again even though Emory's Bridget Harding and Katarina Su tied the match at four all and then narrowed the match to 7-6.
Serving for the match Linda Shin was dynamic as her first serve was returned wide and her second serve was returned right to Raventos who hit a quick backhand kill to put the Ephs up 30-love. Shin's third serve forced a wide return and her final serve got in on the backhand and was mishit wide to give the Ephs the match point and the 2-1 team lead.
 
The Eph lead went to 3-1 when Rebecca Curran defeated Melissa Goodman in straight sets at three singles, 6-0, 6-2. Curran finished off her intercollegiate career in style as the all-time leader at Williams in doubles victories with 110 (110-26) and a singles ledger of 89-27.
Emory got a point back to make the score 3-2 in favor of Williams when Bridget Harding topped the Ephs' Julia Cancio 6-4, 6-4 at five singles.
 
Sophomore Juli Raventos boosted the Eph lead back to two at 4-2, recording a straight-set win at one singles, downing Emory's Michelle Satterfield 6-3, 6-2.
With the score 4-2 Williams, the second singles match between Linda Shin and Beatrice Rosen of Emory was headed to a third set.
 
Mia Gancayco at No. 4 singles lost her first set to the Eagles' Katarina Su in a tiebreaker and came back in set two to generate a 4-2 lead but lost the set 6-4. The Eph lead was now down to one at 4-3.
Eph sophomore Hannah Atkinson forced a third set at six singles with a 6-3 win in the second set over Madison Gordon after Gordon opened the match with a 6-4 first set win. Atkinson was defeated 6-0 in the third set and that tied the match score at 4.
 
When Atkinson's match ended it all came down to the result in the Shin-Rosen match. Rosen won the first set despite Shin opening with a 4-0 lead. Rosen won six straight games in capturing the first set 6-4.
 
Shin bounced back in the second set beating Rosen 6-2. The two players then split the first six game of the third and deciding set, 3-3.
 
On serve, Shin, who also competed in doubles while Rosen did not, led in the seventh game 30-love and prevailed in the 4-3 and now Rosen would serve to try and even the set.
 
Shin broke Rosen's serve to take a 5-3 lead and putting herself in position to serve for the match. Shin struck first but Rosen took the next two points before Shin knotted the score at 30. Just as she did in doubles play Shin unleashed some tough serves on Rosen and Rosen's first return went into the net. Serving with a 40-30 lead Shin drove her serve deep and Rosen returned over the end line and the Ephs were NCAA Champions again!
 
Shin won in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
 
"Today Linda Shin finished what she couldn't last year and she was more than ready and wanted to be in that position and she really came through," said Swain. "It was a battle, but we expected that it would be."
 
Summing up the championship run Swain offered, "I think our team knew we were tough but this week showed we really are and every single person on our roster contributed."
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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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