By Jim Fenton, The Enterprise (Brockton)
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University women’s tennis team travels to Brunswick, Maine this week for another appearance in the NCAA Division 3 tournament.
The Bears, who qualified last October by winning the Little East Conference tournament, will play Colby-Sawyer College on Friday at 1 p.m. in the regional quarterfinal round.
The winner advances to the semifinal round on Saturday afternoon against host Bowdoin College with the final on Sunday afternoon.
Fifth-seeded BSU (13-6) has reached the NCAAs for the fourth time in seven years and the fifth time overall.
The Bears edged Rhode Island College, 5-4, for the Little East title and an automatic berth on Oct. 29 after going 7-1 in the conference.
BSU has no seniors on the roster and will be picking up valuable experience during its trip to the NCAAs.
“They’re a hard working bunch,″ said first-year coach David Purpura. “It’ll be fun. It’s certainly an opportunity for us to grow as a program and elevate the program.″
Purpura, a former coach at Taunton High, was named the Little East Coach of the Year in his first season at the collegiate level last fall.
Junior Bojana Roman was named the most outstanding player of the Little East tournament and made the all-conference first team in singles. Roman and Alison Scagnelli made the all-conference team in doubles.
Also playing singles are Alisha Silva of Taunton, Amanda Strickland, Rachel Tarantino and Angelique Gray while the other doubles teams are Silva and Strickland plus Tarantino and Gray.
BSU got off to a 3-3 start last fall before winning eight of the next 10 matches.
“We surprised ourselves this season,″ said Purpura. “I knew we had a strong women’s program from the get-go, but we started the season a little bit slow. We were competing, but we were losing.
“It wasn’t until our first match against RIC that we really got going. At that point, were were hovering aorund .500 and we went to RIC, which was undefeated, and eeked out a victory. I think we realized we could compete with some of the stronger teams in the conference and we got hot at the right time.″
More than six months after finishing the fall season, the Bears are now taking part in the national tourney.
They played exhibition matches at UMass-Dartmouth, then defeated Salem State, 7-2, in late April to tune up for the NCAAs.
“It’s really challenging,″ said Purpura. “The girls had a pretty long layoff. We slowly worked our way back starting in March. It’s certainly unique.″